falifornia 

?ional 

bility 


LIBRARY  OF 

B.  W.   ARNET 

w,Njt> 

\V  ILBERKORCK.       (")  H 
1893. 


VIEWS 

OF 

AMERICAN  SLAYERY, 

TAKEN 

A  CENTURY  AGO. 


Jolju 


"WHATSOEVER  YE  WOULD  THAT  MEN  SHOULD  DO  TO  YOU,  DO  YE  IVEN  so 

TO  THEM ;    FOR  THIS  13  THE  LAW." — MATT.  vii.  12. 

"IT  IS  IMPOSSIBLE  FOR  US  TO  SUPPOSE  THESE  CREATURES  TO  BE  MEN, 
BECAUSE,  ALLOWING  THEM  TO  BE  MEN,  A  SUSPICION  WOULD  FOLLOW  THAT  WE 
OURSELVES  ARE  NOT  CHRISTIANS." 

MONTESQUIEU:  Spirit  of  Laws,  book  xv.  chap.  5. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

ASSOCIATION  OP  FRIENDS  FOR  THE  DIFFUSION  OF  RELIGIOUS 

AND  USEFUL  KNOWLEDGE. 
No.  109  NORTH  TENTH  STREET. 

1858. 


GENERAL  INTRODUCTION. 


THE  object  of  the  following  compilation  is  to 
present  to  the  American  reader  the  opinions  of 
some  of  the  truly  great  and  good  men  of  the 
eighteenth  century  on  the  subject  of  Negro 
Slavery. 

The  attention  of  the  public  has  been  so  long 
absorbed  by  the  consideration  of  its  economical 
and  political  bearings,  that  there  is  great  danger 
lest  its  moral  and  religious  aspect  may  be  entirely 
lost  sight  of. 

An  investigation  of  the  whole  subject,  upon 
these  grounds,  becomes,  at  the  present  time,  a 
most  especial  and  important  duty,  when  this 
great  question  of  Slavery  seems  not  only  to 
agitate  our  public  councils,  and  almost  to  en- 
danger our  national  existence;  but  to  per- 
i*  5 

2201135 


6  GENERAL    INTRODUCTION. 

meate  even  the  local  politics  of  every  section  of 
the  Union. 

Moreover,  it  is  brought  seriously  to  the  at- 
tention of  every  citizen  of  the  United  States  by 
the  obligations  of  our  national  law,  which  en- 
forces, under  heavy  penalties,  his  individual  co- 
operation with  the  slave-holder  in  the  assertion 
of  a  claim  to  ownership  in  a  human  being ;  as  well 
as  by  the  alleged  decisions  of  our  highest  judicial 
tribunal  that  slavery  is  under  constitutional  pro- 
tection in  all  the  common  territories  of  the 
Union. 

In  this  view  of  the  case,  it  has  been  thought 
that  great  advantage  might  arise  from  an  en- 
deavour, at  this  time  of  excitement,  calmly  to 
recur  to  first  principles  with  reference  to  so 
important  a  subject,  to  trace  the  title  of  Ameri- 
can Slavery  back  to  its  origin ;  and  to  ascertain 
something  of  the  religious  opinion  of  the  last 
century  upon  the  merits  of  the  question. 

In  the  course  of  this  investigation  many 
tracts  and  pamphlets  contained  in  our  libra- 
ries were  carefully  examined ;  and  two  essays 
have  been  selected  as  comprising  the  substance 
of  the  whole.  They  present  in  earnest  and 


GENERAL     INTRODUCTION.  7 

simple  language  the  purest  religious  sentiment 
of  that  age,  and,  as  such,  are  commended  to  the 
Christian  community  of  our  own. 

It  will  be  found,  perhaps,  that  the  professing 
church  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  retro- 
graded somewhat  from  the  uncompromising  zeal 
and  vigilance  which  characterized  it  in  the  eigh- 
teenth ;  and  that  it  may  be  shrinking  at  this 
time  from  bearing  before  the  world  that  testi- 
mony which  it  then  fearlessly  avowed  against 
the  whole  system  of  American  Slavery. 


EXTRACTS 


FROM  THE  WRITINGS  OP 


ANTHONY   BENEZET 


ON  THE  SUBJECT  OP  THE 


AFRICAN  SLAVE-TRADE 


AMEKICAN    SLAYEEY. 


PUBLISHED  ORIGINALLY  IN  PHILADELPHIA, 
FROM  1750  TO  1774. 


ANTHONY  BENEZET. 


IN  the  year  1785,  the  Vice-Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Cambridge  gave  out  two  subjects  for 
the  Latin  dissertations,  one  to  the  Middle  Bachelors, 
the  other  to  the  Senior  Bachelors  of  Arts.  The 
latter  ran  simply  thus  : — 

"Anne  liceat  invitos  in  servitutem  dare." 

Is  it  lawful  to  make  slaves  of  others  against  their  will  ? 

The  successful  competitor  for  the  first  honors  of 
the  University  that  year,  Thomas  Clarkson,  had  also 
distinguished  himself  by  gaining  a  prize  for  the  best 
Latin  dissertation  in  1784,  and  he  therefore  was 
expected  to  compete  for  the  same  dignity  on  this 
occasion. 

Clarkson,  however,  was  so  entirely  unprepared  for 
the  Vice-Chancellor's  theme,  that  we  are  informed 
by  his  biographers,  he  hesitated  to  venture  his 
reputation  on  the  attempt,  and  nothing  but  the 


12  ANTHONY    BENEZET. 

greater  risk  of  losing  it  by  a  withdrawal  induced 
him  to  enter  the  lists.  With  no  other  motive  than 
to  obtain  a  higher  scholastic  fame,  this  great  cham- 
pion of  the  African  race  entered  on  his  first  in- 
vestigations into  the  history  of  their  sufferings  and 
their  wrongs. 

Little  attention,  however,  had  been  drawn  to  the 
subject  in  England  at  that  time,  and  he  found  him- 
self at  a  great  loss  for  substantial  materials  for  his 
work.  "I  was  in  this  difficulty,"  says  he,  "when, 
going  by  accident  into  a  friend's  house,  I  took  up  a 
newspaper  then  lying  on  the  table.  One  of  the 
articles  which  attracted  my  notice  was  an  adver- 
tisement of  Anthony  Benezet's,  '  Historical  Account 
of  Guinea/  &c.  I  soon  left  my  friend  and  his  paper, 
and,  to  lose  no  time,  hastened  to  London  to  buy  it. 
In  this  precious  book  I  found  almost  all  I  wanted." 

The  result  is  well  known  to  the  world :  the  essay 
was  completed,  the  first  prize  won,  and  from  that 
day  Clarksou  dedicated  his  talents  and  his  life  to  the 
service  of  the  oppressed  African;  with  what  suc- 
cess, it  is  needless  here  to  tell. 

The  author  of  this  little  volume,  which  may 
almost  be  said  to  have  thus  laid  the  foundation  for 
the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade  in  England,  and  in 
fact  over  the  world,  did  not  live  to  witness  the  fruits 


ANTHONY    BENEZET.  13 

of  his  labors,  having  died  in  Philadelphia  in  the 
year  1784. 

And  while  Clarkson's  fame  is  cherished,  not  only 
in  his  native  land,  but  wherever  humanity  is  re- 
spected, the  name  of  Anthony  Benezet  is  now  hardly 
known  beyond  the  limits  of  the  city  where  the 
greater  part  of  his  life  was  spent,  and  even  here  is 
fast  passing  from  our  memories. 

With  a  view  of  recalling  it  somewhat  to  the 
readers  of  the  extracts  from  his  writings  now  pre- 
sented, as  well  as  to  lend  to  them  if  possible  some 
additional  interest,  the  following  brief  outline  of  his 
life  and  labors  is  offered.  A  more  extended  bio- 
graphy should,  however,  at  an  early  day  be  prepared, 
with  such  copious  selections  from  his  correspondence 
and  general  writings,  as  shall  present  to  the  world  a 
more  adequate  tribute  to  the  memory  of  this  excel- 
lent man.* 

*  In  Clarkson's  History  of  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave-Trade 
•will  be  found  a  lively  notice  of  Anthony  Benezet's  life  and 
labors.  An  interesting  memoir  of  him  was  also  published  in  1817, 
by  the  late  Roberts  Vaux.  From  these,  together  with  such 
other  cotemporary  materials  as  could  be  obtained,  this  sketch 
is  compiled.  Some  valuable  allusions  and  anecdotes  with  re- 
gard to  him  occur  in  the  English  biographies  of  the  Countess 
of  Huntingdon,  George  Whitefield,  and  other  distinguished  cha- 
-acters  of  that  day,  with  whom  Benezet  corresponded.  In  our  own 


14  ANTHONY    BENEZET. 

Anthony  Benezet  was  born  at  St.  Quentin,  in  the 
province  of  Picardy,  France,  in  the  year  1713. 
His  parents,  although  wealthy  and  respectable,  were 
associated  with  those  Protestants  contemptuously 
termed  Huguenots  ;*  and,  in  the  persecutions  which 
followed  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  were 
driven  from  their  native  country  and  forced  to  take 
refuge  in  Holland,  which  they  reached  through  many 
difficulties  and  dangers. 

The  family  afterwards  removing  to  London,  An- 
thony Benezet,  on  the  completion  of  a  good  school- 
education,  was  placed  with  an  eminent  mercantile  firm 
in  that  city,  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  business. 
Not  feeling  satisfied,  however,  to  enter  on  commer- 
cial pursuits,  he  did  not  serve  out  his  apprenticeship ; 

country  the  great  scarcity  of  such  memoranda  is  attributed 
to  a  deference,  on  the  part  of  his  friends,  to  his  own  unfeigned 
humility,  and  his  disapprobation  of  overrated  eulogies  of  the 
dead.  He  requested  that  they  -would  publish  no  posthumous 
memorial  of  him ;  though,  added  he,  "  If  they  will  not  regard 
my  desire,  they  may  say  Anthony  Benezet  was  a  poor  creature, 
and,  through  divine  favor,  was  enabled  to  know  it." 

*  History  informs  us  that  one  of  this  family,  Francois  Bene- 
zet, afterwards  perished  on  the  scaffold  at  Montpellier  in  France, 
in  1755,  upholding  nobly  to  the  multitude  around  him  the 
doctrines  he  had  preached  and  then  suffered  for. — Felice's 
History  of  French  Protestants. 


ANTHONY    BENEZET.  15 

but  adopted  from  preference  a  mechanical  employ- 
ment, as  more  congenial  to  his  retired  and  thoughtful 
frame  of  mind. 

He  appears,  at  the  early  age  of  fourteen,  to  have 
joined  the  Society  of  Friends,  called  Quakers;  and 
to  have  adopted  from  conviction  their  religious  views 
and  testimonies.  In  his  eighteenth  year  he  removed 
with  the  family  to  Philadelphia,  where  his  brothers 
embarked  largely  in  a  successful  and  lucrative  busi- 
ness, a  share*  of  which  was  freely  offered  to  him. 
He  adhered,  however,  to  the  decision  deliberately 
arrived  at  when  in  London,  that  the  absorbing  en- 
gagements of  a  commercial  career  were  incompatible 
with  that  entire  dedication  of  life  to  the  cause  of 
religion  and  humanity  to  which  he  felt  himself 
called.  Yet  it  was  with  some  difficulty,  after  at- 
tempting for  a  time  manufacturing  as  well  as 
mechanical  pursuits,  without  satisfaction  to  his  mind, 
that  he  finally  settled  on  the  profession  of  a  teacher 
as  the  calling  most  congenial  to  his  own  views  of 
duty,  and  most  likely  to  be  useful  to  his  fellow-men. 
In  this  choice,  as  well  as  in  the  persevering  devotion 
of  his  time  and  talents  for  more  than  forty  years 
to  the  duties  he  had  chosen,  Anthony  Benezet  ap- 
pears, from  all  accounts,  to  have  been  actuated  en- 
tirely by  the  most  disinterested  and  Christian  motives. 


16  ANTHONY    BENEZET. 

Endearing  his  scholars  to  him,  by  an  affectionate 
and  fatherly  manner  and  a  conscientious  interest  in 
their  welfare,  he  yet  carefully  studied  their  dis- 
positions and  character,  and  sought  to  develop,  by 
gentle  assiduity,  the  peculiar  talents  of  each  indi- 
vidual pupil.  "With  some,  persuasion  was  his  only 
incitement,  others  he  stimulated  to  a  laudable  emu- 
lation ;  and  even  with  the  most  obdurate  he  seldom, 
if  ever,  appealed  to  any  other  corrective,  than  that 
sense  of  shame,  and  fear  of  public  disgrace,  which  he 
greatly  preferred  to  any  corporal  punishment.  In  all 
these  respects  he  was  far  in  advance  of  his  age  in 
the  instruction  of  the  young.  Clarkson,  who  had 
access  to  Benezet's  extensive  foreign  correspondence, 
expressly  records  of  him,  that  on  such  great  questions 
as  that  of  Slavery,  he  labored  to  imbue  his  pupils 
with  correct  and  thorough  convictions  of  the  right ; 
believing  that,  by  thus  annually  sending  forth  a  con- 
siderable number  of  well-trained  youth,  he  was  most 
effectively  influencing  the  future  public  sentiment. 

Yet,  while  thus  laboriously  discharging  his  daily 
avocations,  in  the  course  of  which  he  compiled  two  in- 
troductory works  for  the  use  of  schools,  much  superior 
to  the  elementary  treatises  then  in  vogue,  and  which 
obtained  considerable  reputation  abroad  and  at  home, 
Anthony  Benezet  appears  to  have  been  also  distin- 


ANTHONY    BENEZET.  17 

guished  in  every  benevolent  public  work  and  move- 
ment of  the  day. 

It  is  not  intended  at  tbis  time  to  follow  bim  in 
these  various  labors,  a  recital  of  which  would  fill  a 
large  volume.  It  may  be  enough  to  say  that  he 
was  truly  a  Christian  philanthropist;  most  unosten- 
tatiously laboring,  by  personal  influence,  by  corre- 
spondence, and  by  aid  of  the  public  press,  for  the 
promotion  of  any  cause  of  humanity  he  was  engaged 
in,  or  for  the  suppression  of  iniquity  and  wrong. 

He  published  several  tracts  and  pamphlets  on  the 
evils  of  intemperance. 

The  subject  of  war,  with  all  its  attendant  horrors, 
was  brought  closely  home  to  him  by  the  trials  of  the 
American  Revolution.  The  sufferings  of  the  soldiers, 
and  of  the  inhabitants  on  whom  they  were  quartered, 
formed  the  object  of  many  a  visit  to  the  officers' 
camp  or  to  the  public  hospitals ;  and  the  iniquity 
of  the  whole  system,  especially  its  entire  incon- 
sistency  with  the  Christian  profession,  impressed 
him  so  deeply  that  he  printed  and  circulated,  in  large 
numbers,  a  treatise  entitled  "  Thoughts  on  the  Na- 
ture  of  Warp^commending  it  by  special  letters  to 
persons  or  distinction  in  Europe  and  America,  for 
their  perusal  and  reflection. 

In  1778,  during  the  excitement  of  the  American 


'8  ANTHONY     BENEZET. 

Revolution,  lie  issued  a  small  work  entitled  "  Serious 
Reflections  on  the  Times,  addressed  to  the  Well-Dis- 
posed of  every  Religious  Denomination."  The  spirit 
of  the  whole  book  may  be  gathered  from  its  closing 
paragraph : — 

"  Let  us  not,  beloved  brethren,  forget  our  profes- 
sion as  Christians,  nor  the  blessing  promised  by 
Christ  to  the  peace-makers;  but  let  us  all  sincerely 
address  our  common  Father  for  ability  to  pray,  not 
for  the  destruction  of  our  enemies,  who  are  still  our 
brethren,  the  purchase  of  our  blessed  Redeemer's 
blood,  but  for  an  agreement  with  them.  Not  in 
order  to  indulge  our  passions  in  the  .gains  and  de- 
lights  of  this  vain  world,  and  forget  we  are  called  to 
be  as  pilgrims  and  strangers  in  it,  but  that  we  may 
be  more  composed,  and  better  fitted  for  the  kingdom 
of  Grod ;  that,  in  the  dispensations  of  His  good  plea- 
sure, He  may  grant  us  such  a  peace,  as  may  prove  to 
the  consolation  of  the  Church,  as  well  as  the  nation, 
and  be  on  earth  an  image  of  the  tranquillity  of 
heaven." 

His  sympathies  were  deeply  enlisted  for  the  abo- 
riginal inhabitants  of  America,  and  he  labored  much, 
for  the  general  protection  of  the  rights  of  this  people, 
as  well  as  for  the  relief  of   particular   instances  of 
suffering  among  them. 


ANTHONY    BENEZET.  19 

A  pamphlet  published  shortly  before  his  death, 
entitled  "  Some  Observations  on  the  Situation,  Dis- 
position, and  Character  of  the  Indian  Natives  of 
the  Continent/7  was  thought  by  his  friends  to  be  the 
prelude  to  a  more  extended  work  on  the  same  sub- 
ject, had  life  permitted. 

He  had  strong  faith  in  the  integrity  of  the  Indian 
character,  and  believed  that,  if  treated  with  justice 
and  consideration,  much,  if  not  all,  of  the  bloodshed 
and  cruelty  of  the  wars  with  these  tribes  might  be 
averted.  In  1763,  when  the  British  General  Am- 
herst  was  at  New  York,  preparing  for  an  Indian 
campaign,  Anthony  Benezet  addressed  him  an  earnest 
and  able  letter  on  their  behalf,  concluding  with  the 
pathetic  appeal,  "  And,  further,  may  I  entreat  the 
general,  for  our  blessed  Redeemer's  sake,  from  the  no- 
bility and  humanity  of  his  heart,  that  he  wouldcon^- 
descend  to  use  all  moderate  measures,  if  j 


prevent  that  prodigious  and  cruel  effusion  of  blood, 
that  deep  anxiety  and  distress,  that  must  fill  the  breasts 
of  so  many  helpless  people  should  an  Indian  war  be 
once  entered  upon  ?" 

In  the  year  1755,  the  arrival  in  Philadelphia  of 
great  numbers  of  the  exiled  Acadians  afforded  Bene- 
zet a  wide  field  for  his  benevolent  labors.  Driven 
from  their  homes  in  Nova  Scotia,  in  express  viola- 


20  ANTHONY    BENEZET. 

tion  of  treaty  stipulations,  by  the  cruelty  of  the 
British  commander,  nearly  seven  thousand  of  these 
unhappy  neutrals  were  dispersed  along  the  American 
coast,  from  Massachusetts  Bay  to  New  Orleans, 
friendless,  and  destitute  of  even  the  necessaries  of 
life. 

Anthony  Benezet,  being  enabled  to  converse  with 
the  exiles  in  their  own  language,  and  feeling  his  sym- 
pathies especially  enlisted  on  their  behalf,  immediately 
undertook  the  charge  of  providing  asylums  for  the 
aged  and  helpless,  and  employment  for  such  as  were 
able  to  work.  All  his  friends  were  laid  under  tribute 
for  the  relief  and  support  of  his  Acadian  colony. 
One  gave,  at  his  request,  the  necessary  grounds, 
others  joined  him  in  furnishing  the  funds  to  erect  the 
buildings  required  for  their  accommodation,  and 
Benezet  himself  purchased  and  disbursed,  for  a  con- 
siderable time,  all  the  provisions  and  clothing  they 
needed.  He  visited  carefully  the  sick  and  infirm 
among  them ;  extended  religious  consolation  to  the 
dying;  and  when  all  was  over,  performed  the  last 
offices  of  respect  to  their  remains. 

A  most  interesting  history  could  be  written  of  his 
labors,  for  years,  on  behalf  of  this  poor  people. 

But,  while  his  heart  seemed  thus  open  to  every 
variety  of  human  suffering  and  woe,  whether  among 


ANTHONY    BENEZET.  21 

the  exiles  of  his  own  race,  or  the  aborigines  of  Ame- 
rica, the  principal  share  of  his  sympathies  and  chari- 
ties, during  a  long  life,  was  devoted  to  the  service  of 
a  still  more  oppressed  and  degraded  people. 

About  the  year  1750,  long  before  the  members  of 
his  own  Society  had  acted  unitedly  upon  the  subject, 
Anthony  Benezet  began  to  arouse  public  attention  to 
the  horrors  of  the  African  slave-trade  and  the  enor- 
mous evils  of  American  slavery^ 

Once  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  negro, 
it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  more  untiring  and 
faithful  devotion  than  he  manifested,  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life,  to  this  subject.  Clarkson  testi- 
fies that  Anthony  Benezet  was  one  of  the  most  zealous 
and  vigilant  advocates  that  the  cause  of  human  free- 
dom ever  possessed. 

No  means  were  left  untried  to  attract  public  notice, 
and  form  a  correct  public  sentiment,  with  regard  to 
this  important  subject.  The  almanacs,  then  retain- 
ing their  hold  on  the  popular  mind  which  Dr.  Frank- 
lin had  established,  contained,  year  after  year,  notices 
of  some  glaring  instance  of  cruelty  or  wrong  to  the 
negroes,  from  the  pen  of  Benezet. 

Innumerable  tracts  and  pamphlets  were  written  and 
circulated  by  him,  reproducing,  with  a  variety  and  in- 
genuity truly  wonderful,  the  complicated  evils  of  the 


22  ANTHONY    BENEZET. 

whole  system  of  slavery.  "If  a  person  called  on 
him/'  says  Clarkson,  "  who  was  going  a  journey,  his 
first  thoughts  usually  were,  how  he  could  make 
him  an  instrument  in  favor  of  this  important  cause. 
He  seemed  to  have  been  born  and  to  have  lived  for 
the  promotion  of  it,  and  he  never  omitted  the  least 
opportunity  of  serving  it." 

From  these  short  tracts  and  notices  in  the  press 
of  the  day,  Anthony  Benezet  proceeded  to  more  ex- 
tended and  laborious  publications.  In  1762  ap- 
peared the  second  edition  of  a  work  entitled  "  A 
Short  Account  of  that  Part  of  Africa  inhabited  by 
the  Negroes,  with  general  observations  on  the  slave- 
trade  and  slavery;"  from  which  some  extracts  will  be 
given  in  this  little  volume. 

In  the  year  1767  he  published  "  A  Caution  and 
Warning  to  Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies  on  the 
Calamitous  State  of  the  Enslaved  Negroes  in  the 
British  Dominions." 

This  little  book,  which  forms  the  principal  basis  of 
the  compilation,  now  presented,  of  Benezet's  writings 
on  this  subject,  produced  long  afterwards  a  great 
sensation,  both  in  England  and  America ;  especially 
in  the  Society  of  which  he  was  a  member.  Clark- 
son  states  that  the  Yearly  Meeting  of  London  recom- 
mended all  the  Quarterly  Meetings,  in  the  year  1785, 


ANTHONY    BENEZET.  23 

to  distribute  this  book,  which  was  accordingly  for- 
warded to  them  for  that  purpose.  "On  receiving 
it,"  says  he,  "they  sent  it  among  several  public 
bodies,  the  regular  and  dissenting  clergy,  justices  of 
the  peace,  and  particularly  among  the  great  schools 
of  the  kingdom,  that  the  rising  youth  might  acquire 
a  knowledge,  and  at  the  same  time  a  detestation,  of 
this  cruel  traffic.  The  schools  of  Westminster,  the 
Charter-House,  St.  Paul's,  Merchant  Tailors',  Eton, 
Winchester,  Harrow,  and  several  of  the  acade- 
mies, were  visited  by  deputations  of  the  Society,  to 
know  if  their  masters  would  allow  the  scholars  to 
receive  it." 

Who  can  tell  how  much  of  that  public  opinion 
was  thus  formed  which,  many  years  afterwards,  re- 
sponded to  the  efforts  of  Buxton  and  his  friends,  to 
abolish  entirely  the  whole  system  of  slavery  in  the 
British  dominions  ? 

But  the  publication  destined  to  be  productive  of 
the  most  important  results,  was  issued  by  Benezet  in 
1767,  after  years  of  patient  research  in  collecting 
authentic  materials  for  his  work.  It  was  entitled 
"An  Historical  Account  of  Guinea,  in  Situation, 
Produce,  and  the  General  Disposition  of  its  Inhabit- 
ants ;  with  an  Enquiry  into  the  Rise  and  Progress 


24  ANTHONYBENEZET. 

of    the    Slave-Trade,  jts    Nature    and    Calamitous 


"  This  _bpok/'  says  Clarkson,  feelingly,  "  became 
instrumental  beyond  any  other  work  ever  before  pub- 
lished in  disseminating  a  proper  knowledge  and  de- 
testation of  this  trade."  The  authorities  quoted  in 
this  volume  are  all  of  the  most  unquestionable  cha- 
racter; and  no  successful  effort  was  ever  made  to 
controvert  them. 

He  was  unwearied  also  in  collecting  statistics  and 
facts  from  the  negroes  themselves,  with  regard  to  their 
sufferings;  and  would  often  be  seen  on  the  wharves 
surrounded  by  a  group  of  these  poor  people,  whose 
story  afterwards  served  as  a  basis  for  an  argument 
or  a  touching  appeal,  in  one  of  the  almanacs  or 
papers  of  the  day. 

Anthony  Benezet  did  not,  however,  confine  his  ex- 
ertions to  the  publication  of  treatises  on  the  subject. 
He  corresponded  most  extensively  upon  it,  with  in- 
fluential individuals  in  Europe  and  America,  and 
also  labored  personally  to  awaken  an  interest  for  the 
cause,  in  the  community  where  he  resided. 

Believing  that  the  elevation  of  the  free  people  of 
color  was  not  only  a  duty  owing  to  them  directly, 
but  would  prove  one  of  the  most  efficient  influences 
in  the  general  admission  and  restoration  of  the  rights 


AN1HONY    BENEZET.  25 

of  the  whole  race,  he  established  an  evening  school 
in  Philadelphia  for  their  instruction,  which  he  taught 
gratuitously,  after  the  other  labors  of  the  day  were 
over.  When  afterwards  the  Society  of  Friends  be- 
came interested  in  this  subject  and  it  was  proposed 
to  enlarge  the  benefaction,  Anthony  Benezet  con- 
tributed liberally  himself,  and  was  active  in  soliciting 
funds  from  others  for  the  erection  of  a  building  for 
this  purpose. 

Finding  that  this  school  required  more  attention 
than  his  enfeebled  strength  enabled  him  to  devote  to 
it,  while  also  in  charge  of  the  academy  which  for 
nearly  half  a  century  he  had  successfully  conducted, 
he  relinquished  the  emoluments  of  the  latter,  and 
for  the  last  two  years  of  his  life  spent  most  of  his 
time  at  the  colored  school.  Nor  did  his  devotion  to 
it  end  with  his  life.  By  his  last  will  he  directed 
that  all  his  little  fortune,  after  the  death  of  his 
widow,  should,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  small 
legacies,  be  invested  as  a  permanent  fund  for  its 
support. 

He  leaves  the  following  remarkable  testimony  to  the 
intelligence  and  aptitude  for  learning  of  this  generally- 
despised  race  : — "  I  can  with  truth  and  sincerity  de- 
clare that  I  have  found  amongst  the  negroes  as  great 
variety  of  talents  as  among  the  like  numbers  of  whites; 


26  ANTHONY    BENEZET. 

and  I  ain  bold  to  assert  that  the  notion,  entertained  by 
some,  that  the  blacks  are  inferior  in  their  capacities, 
is  a  vulgar  prejudice,  founded  on  the  pride  or  igno- 
rance of  their  lordly  masters,  who  have  kept  their 
slaves  at  such  a  distance  as  to  be  unable  to  form  a 
right  judgment  of  them." 

The  labors  of  this  excellent  man  were  now  fast 
drawing  towards  a  close;  his  constitution,  for  many 
years  quite  feeble,  at  the  age  of  seventy  seemed  to 
break  down  entirely,  and,  in  the  spring  of  1784,  lie 
sank  into  a  rapid  decline. 

As  it  became  known  that  Anthony  Benezet  was 
critically  ill,  it  is  related  that  his  friends  and  fellow- 
citizens  crowded  round  his  dwelling,  expressing  their 
ardent  solicitude  for  his  recovery  and  restoration  to 
usefulness  in  the  world.  And,  when  this  was  an- 
nounced to  be  impossible,  his  biographer  states  that 
"  the  desire  of  many  persons  to  see  him  was  such 
as  to  induce  an  indulgence  of  their  wish.  They 
seemed  to  want  his  dying  benediction.  They  were 
admitted,  and  the  chamber  in  which  he  lay  and  the 
passage  that  led  to  it,  were  filled  with  approaching 
and  retiring  mourners." 

He  received  their  visits  with  kindness ;  but  the 
few  words  that  escaped  his  lips  indicated  the  deepest 
self-humiliation.  "  I  am  dying,"  said  he  to  those 


ANTHONY    BENEZET.  27 

about  him,  at  one  time,  "  and  feel  ashamed  to  meet 
the  face  of  my  Maker,  I  have  done  so  little  in  His 
cause." 

A  vast  concourse  of  people,  numbering  several 
thousands  of  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  of  every 
rank  and  condition  in  life,  attended  the  remains  of 
Anthony  Benezet  to  their  last  resting-place.  It  was 
said  by  many  eye-witnesses  of  the  scene  to  have  been 
the  largest  and  most  remarkable  assemblage  that  had 
ever  gathered,  on  such  an  occasion,  in  Philadelphia. 
The  principal  men  of  the  city  and  State  were  there, 
embracing  various  trades  and  professions;  and  among 
them  were  several  hundred  negroes,  who  stood  weeping 
around  his  grave.  They  knew  they  had  lost  a 
father  and  a  friend;  and,  while  they  could  not  then 
foresee  the  full  fruits  of  his  labors,  or  rightly  esti- 
mate his  character,  all  classes  acknowledged  that  a 
great  man  had  that  day  fallen  among  them. 


CAUTION  AND  WAKNING 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  HER  COLONIES 

ON  THE  CALAMITOUS  STATE  OF 

THE   ENSLAVED    NEGROES   IN   THE   BRITISH 
DOMINIONS. 


AT  a  time  when  the  general  rights  and  liberties 
of  mankind,  and  the  preservation  of  those  valuable 
privileges  transmitted  to  us  from  our  ancestors,  are 
become  so  much  the  subjects  of  universal  considera- 
tion, can  it  be  an  inquiry  indifferent  to  any,  how 
many  of  those  who  distinguish  themselves  as  the  ad- 
vocates of  liberty  remain  insensible  and  inattentive 
to  the  treatment  of  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  our  fellow-men,  who,  from  motives  of  avarice  and 
the  inexorable  decree  of  tyrant  custom,  are  at  this 
very  time  kept  in  the  most  deplorable  state  of  slavery 
in  many  parts  of  the  British  dominions  ? 

The  intent  of  publishing  the  following  sheets  is 
more  fully  to  make  known  the  aggravated  iniquity 
attending  the  practice  of  the  slave-trade,  whereby 
many  thousands  of  our  fellow-creatures,  as  free  as 
ourselves  by  nature,  and  equally  with  us  the  subjects 
of  Christ's  redeeming  grace,  are  yearly  brought  into 
inextricable  and  barbarous  bondage,  and  many,  very 
many,  to  miserable  and  untimely  ends. 

3*  29 


30  CAUTION    AND   WARNING    TO 

The  truth  of  this  lamentable  complaint  is  so  ob- 
vious  to  persons  of  candor  under  whose  notice  it  hath 
fallen,  that  several  have  lately  published  their  senti- 
ments thereon  as  a  matter  which  calls  for  the  most 
serious  consideration  of  all  who  are  concerned  for  the 
civil  or  religious  welfare  of  their  country.  How  an 
evil  of  so  deep  a  dye  hath  so  long  not  only  passed 
uninterrupted  by  those  in  power,  but  hath  even  had 
their  countenance,  is  indeed  surprising,  and  charity 
must  suppose  in  a  great  measure  to  have  arisen 
from  this,  that  many  persons  in  government,  both  of 
the  clergy  and  laity,  in  whose  power  it  hath  been 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  trade,  have  been  unacquainted 
with  the  corrupt  motives  which  give  life  to  it,  and 
the  dying  groans,  which  daily  ascend  to  God, 
the  common  Father  of  mankind,  from  the  broken 
hearts  of  those  his  deeply-oppressed  creatures  ;  other- 
wise the  powers  of  the  earth  would  not,  I  think  I 
may  venture  to  say,  could  not,  have  so  long  authorized 
a  practice  so  inconsistent  with  every  idea  of  liberty 
and  justice,  which,  as  the  learned  James  Foster  says, 
bids  that  God,  which  is  the  God  and  Father  of  the 
Gentiles  unconverted  to  Christianity,  most  daring  and 
bold  defiance,  and  spurns  at  all  the  principles  both 
of  natural  and  revealed  religion. 

Much  might  justly  be  said  of  the  temporal  fivjj^ 
which  attend  this  practice,  as  it  is  destructive  of  the 

(welfare  of  human  society,  and  of  the  peace  and 
prosperity  of  every  country,  in  proportion  as  it  pre- 
vails. It  might  be  also  shown  that  it  destroys  the 


GREAT   BRITAIN   AND   HER   COLONIES.    31 

bonds  of  natural  affection  and  interest  whereby  man- 
kind in  general  are  united ;  that  it  introduces  idle- 
ness, discourages  marriages,  corrupts  the  youth,  ruins 
and  debauches  morals,  excites  continual  apprehensions 
of  dangers  and  frequent  alarms,  to  which  the  whites 
are  necessarily  exposed  from  so  great  an  increase  of 
a  people  that,  by  their  bondage  and  oppression,  be- 
come natural  enemies,  yet  at  the  same  time  are 
filling  the  places  and  eating  the  bread  of  those  who 
would  be  the  support  and  security  of  the  country. 
But,  as  these  and  many  more  reflections  of  the 
same  kind  may  occur  to  a  considerate  mind,  I  shall 
only  endeavor  to  show,  from  the  nature  of  the  trade, 
the  plenty  which  Guinea  affo: 
barbarous  treatment  of  the  negroes, 
tions  made  thereon  by  authors  of  note,  that  it  is  in 
consistent  with  the  plainest  precepts  of  the  gospel, 
the  dictates  of  reason,  and  every  common  sentiment 
of  humanity. 

In  an  Account  of  Part  of  North  America,  pub- 
lished by  Thomas  Jeffery,  printed  1761,  speaking  of 
the  usage  the  negroes  received  in  the  West  India 
Islands,  he  thus  expresses  himself : — "  It  is  impossible 
for  a  human  heart  to  reflect  upon  the  servitude  of 
these  dregs  of  mankind  without  in  some  measure  feel- 
ing for  their  misery,  which  ends  but  with  their  lives. 

.  .  .  Nothing  can  be  more  wretched  than  the  con- 
dition of  this  people.  One  would  imagine  they  were 
framed  to  be  the  disgrace  of  the  human  species 
banished  from  their  country,  and  deprived  of  that 


;he  nature  of  the  trade,    / 
brds  its  inhabitants,  the  j    . 
egroes,  and  the  observa- \/ 

•«<-,      nf      -,-v^J-^         4-1->^±     i*     in     In  ' 


32  CAUTION   AND   WARNING   TO 

blessing  liberty,  on  which  all  other  nations  set  the 
greatest  value ;  they  are  in  a  manner  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  beasts  of  burden :  in  general  a  few  roots, 
potatoes  especially,  are  their  food,  and  two  rags, 
which  neither  screen  them  from  the  heat  of  the  day 
nor  the  extraordinary  coolness  of  the  night,  all  their 
covering ;  their  sleep  very  short ;  their  labor  almost 
continual;  they  receive  no  wages,  but  have  twenty 
lashes  for  the  smallest  fault." 

The  situation  of  the  negroes  in  our  Southern  pro- 
vinces on  the  continent  is  also  feelingly  set  forth  by 
George  Whitefield,  in  a  letter  from  Georgia  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South 
Carolina,  printed  in  the  year  1739,  of  which  the 
following  is  an  extract : — "  As  I  lately  passed  through 
your  provinces  in  my  *way  hither,  I  was  sensibly 
touched  with  a  fellow-feeling  of  the  miseries  of  the 
poor  negroes.  Whether  it  be  lawful  for  Christians 
to  buy  slaves  and  thereby  encourage  the  nations  from 
whom  they  are  bought  to  be  at  perpetual  war  with 
each  other,  I  shall  not  take  upon  me  to  determine : 
sure  I  am,  it  is  sinful,  when  bought,  to  use  them  as  bad, 
nay,  worse,  than  as  though  they  were  brutes;  and, 
whatever  particular  exceptions  there  may  be,  (as  I 
would  charitably  hope  there  are  some,)  I  fear  the 
generality  of  you  that  own  negroes  are  liable  to  such 
a  charge;  for  your  slaves,  I  believe,  work  as  hard, 
if  not  harder,  than  the  horses  whereon  you  ride. 
These,  after  they  have  done  their  work,  are  fed  and 
taken  proper  care  of;  but  many  negroes,  when 


GREAT   BRITAIN   AND   HER   COLONIES.    33 

wearied  with  labor  in  your  plantations,  have  been 
obliged  to  grind  their  own  corn  after  they  return 
home.  Your  dogs  are  caressed  and  fondled  at  your 
tables ;  but  your  slaves,  who  are  frequently  styled  dogs 
or  beasts,  have  not  an  equal  privilege  :  they  are  scarce 
permitted  to  pick  up  the  crumbs  which  fall  from 
their  master's  table;  not  to  mention  what  numbers 
have  been  given  up  to  the  inhuman  usage  of  cruel 
taskmasters,  who,  by  their  unrelenting  scourges, 
have  ploughed  their  backs,  and  made  long  furrows, 
and  at  length  brought  them  even  to  death.  When, 
passing  alongi  I  have  viewed  your  plantations  cleared 
and  cultivated,  many  spacious  houses  built,  and  the 
owners  of  them  faring  sumptuously  every  day,  my 
blood  has  frequently  almost  run  cold  within  me  to 
consider  how  many  of  your  slaves  had  neither  con- 
venient food  to  eat  nor  proper  raiment  to  put  on,  not- 
withstanding most  of  the  comforts  you  enjoy  were 
solely  owing  to  their  indefatigable  labors.  The 
Scripture  says,  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  that 
treadeth  out  the  corn.  Does  God  take  care  for  oxen, 
and  will  he  not  take  care  of  the  negroes  also  ?  Un- 
doubtedly he  will.  Go  to  now,  ye  rich  men,  weep 
and  howl  for  your  miseries  that  shall  come  upon  you  : 
behold,  the  provision  of  the  poor  negroes,  who  have 
reaped  down  your  fields,  which  is  by  you  denied 
them,  crieth ;  and  the  cries  of  them  which  reaped 
are  entered  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth. 
We  have  a  remarkable  instance  of  God's  taking 
cognizance  of  and  avenging  the  quarrel  of  poor 


34  CAUTION    AND    WARNING    TO 

slaves,  2  Sam.  xxi.  1.  There  was  a  famine  in  the 
days  of  David,  three  years,  year  after  year,  and 
David  inquired  of  the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  answered, 
It  is  for  Saul  and  his  bloody  house,  because  he  slew 
the  Gibeonites.  Two  things  are  here  very  remark- 
able :  First,  these  Gibeonites  were  only  hewers  of 
wood  and  drawers  of  water,  or,  in  other  words,  slaves 
like  yours.  Secondly,  that  this  plague  was  sent  by 
God  many  years  after  the  injury,  the  cause  of  the 
plague,  was  committed.  And  for  what  end  were  this 
and  such  like  examples  recorded  in  Holy  Scriptures  ? 
Without  doubt,  for  our  learning.  For  God  is  the 
same  to-day  as  he  was  yesterday,  and  will  continue 
the  same  forever.  He  does  not  reject  the  prayer  of 
the  poor  and  destitute,  nor  disregard  the  cry  of  the 
meanest  negro.  The  blood  of  them  spilt  for  these 
many  years  in  your  respective  provinces  will  ascend 
up  to  heaven  against  you." 

Some  who  have  only  seen  negroes  in  an  abject  state 
of  slavery,  broken-spirited  and  dejected,  knowing 
nothing  of  their  situation  in  their  native  country, 
may  apprehend  that  they  are  naturally  insensible  of 
the  benefits  of  liberty,  being  destitute  and  miserable 
in  every  respect,  and  that  our  suffering  them  to  live 
amongst  us,  (as  the  Gibeonites  of  old  were  permitted 
to  live  with  the  Israelites,)  though  even  on  more 
oppressive  jterms,  is  to  them  a  favor ;  but  these  are 
certainly  erroneous  opinions  wim^respect  to  far  the 
greatest  part  of  them,  although  it  is  highly  probable 
that  in  a  country  which  is  more  than  three  thousand 


GREAT    BRITAIN  AND    HER   COLONIES.    35 

miles  in  extent  from  north  to  south,  and  as  much 
from  east  to  west,  there  will  be  barren  parts,  and 
many  inhabitants  more  uncivilized  and  barbarous 
than  others,  as  is  the  case  in  all  other  countries; 
yet,  from  the  most  authentic  accounts,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Guinea  appear,  generally  speaking,  to  be  an 
industrious,  humane,  sociable  people,  whose  capaci- 
ties are  naturally  as  enlarged  and  as  open  to  im- 
provement as  those  of  the  Europeans,  and  that 
their  country  is  fruitful  and  in  many  places  well  im- 
proved, abounding  in  cattle,  grain,  and  fruits ;  and, 
as  the  earth  yields  all  the  year  round  a  fresh  supply 
of  food,  and  but  little  clothing  is  requisite,  by 
reason  of  the  continual  warmth  of  the  climate,  the 
necessaries  of  life  are  much  easier  procured  in  most 
parts  of  xVfrica  than  in  our  more  northern  climes. 
This  is  confirmed  by  many  authors  of  note  who  have 
resided  there. 

William  Smith,  who  was  sent  by  the  African  Com- 
pany to  visit  the  settlements  on  the  coast  of  Guinea, 
in  1726,  gives  much  the  same  account  of  the-  country 
of  Delmina  and  Cape  Corse,  &c.  for  beauty  and  good- 
ness, and  adds,  "The  more  you  come  downward  toward 
that  part  called  Slave-Coast,  the  more  delightful  and 
rich  the  soil  appears."  Speaking  of  their  disposi- 
tion, he  says,  "  They  were  a  civil,  good-natured 
people,  industrious  to  the  last  degree.  It  is  easy  to 
perceive  what  happy  memories  they  are  blessed  with, 
and  how  great  progress  they  would  make  in  the 
sciences  in  case  their  genius  was  culthnted  with 


36  CAUTION   AND   WARNING   TO 

study."  He  adds,  from  the  information  he  received 
of  one  of  the  factors  who  had  resided  ten  years  in 
that  country,  "  that  the  discerning  natives  account 
it  their  greatest  unhappiness  that  they  were  ever 
visited  by  the  Europeans;  that  the  Christians  intro- 
duced the  traffic  of  slaves,  and  that  before  our  coming 
they  lived  in  peace." 

From  these  accounts,  both  of  the  good  disposition 
of  the  natives  and  the  fruitfulness  of  most  parts  of 
Guinea,  which  are  confirmed  by  many  other  authors,  it 
may  well  be  concluded  that  their  acquaintance  with  the 
Europeans  would  have  been  a  happiness  to  them  had 
those  last  not  only  bore  the  name,  but  been  influenced 
by  the  spirit,  of  Christianity.  But,  alas,  how  hath  the 
conduct  of  the  whites  contradicted  the  precepts  and 
example  of  Christ !  Instead  of  promoting  the  end  of 
his  coming  by  preaching  the  gospel  of  peace  and 
good-will  to  man,  they  have,  by  their  practices,  con- 
tributed to  inflame  every  noxious  passion  of  corrupt 
nature  in  the  negroes ;  they  have  incited  them  to 
make  war  one  upon  another,  and  for  this  purpose 
have  furnished  them  with  prodigious  quantities  of 
ammunition  and  arms,  whereby  they  have  been  hurried 
into  confusion,  bloodshed,  and  all  the  extremities  of 
temporal  misery,  which  must  necessarily  beget  in 
their  minds  such  a  general  detestation  and  scorn  of 
the  Christian  name  as  may  deeply  affect,  if  not 
wholly  preclude,  their  belief  of  the  great  truths  of 
our  holy  religion.  Thus  an  insatiable  desire  of  gain 
hath  become  the  principal  and  moving  cause  of  the 


GREAT    BRITAIN    AND    HER    COLONIES.    37 

roost  abominable  and  dreadful  scene  that  was  per- 
haps ever  acted  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  Even 
the  power  of  their  kings  hath  been  made  subservient 
to  answer  this  wicked  purpose  :  instead  of  being  pro- 
tectors of  their  people,  these  rulers,  allured  by  the 
tempting  bait  laid  before  them  by  the  European  fac- 
tors, &c.,  have  invaded  the  liberties  of  their  unhappy 
subjects  and  are  become  their  oppressors. 

Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  trade  agree 
that  many  negroes  on  the  sea-coast,  who  have  been 
corrupted  by  their  intercourse  and  converse  with  the 
European  factors,  have  learned  to  stick  at  no  act  of 
cruelty  for  gain.  These  make  it  a  practice  to  steal 
abundance  of  little  blacks  of  both  sexes,  when  found 
on  the  roads  or  in  the  fields,  where  their  parents 
keep  them  all  day  to  watch  the  corn,  &c.  Some 
authors  say  the  negro  factors  go  six  or  seven  hun- 
dred miles  up  the  country  with  goods  bought  from 
the  Europeans,  where  markets  of  men  are  kept  in 
the  same  manner  as  those  of  beasts  with  us.  When 
the  poor  slaves,  whether  brought  from  far  or  near, 
come  to  the  sea-shore,  they  are  stripped  naked  and 
strictly  examined  by  the  European  surgeons,  both 
men  and  women,  without  the  least  distinction  or 
modesty :  those  which  are  approved  as  good  are 
marked  with  a  redhot  iron  with  the  ship's  mark, 
after  which  they  are  put  on  board  the  vessels,  the 
men  being  shackled  with  irons,  two  and  two  together. 
Reader,  bring  the  matter  home,  and  consider  whether 
any  situation  in  life  can  oe  more  compstely  misera- 
4 


38  CAUTION   AND   WARNING   TO 

ble  than  that  of  those  distressed  captives.  When 
we  reflect  that  each  individual  of  this  number  had 
some  tender  attachment,  which  was  broken  by  this 
cruel  separation ;  some  parent  or  wife,  who  had  not 
an  opportunity  of  mingling  tears  in  a  parting  em- 
brace; perhaps  some  infant,  or  aged  parent,  whom 
his  labor  was  to  feed  and  vigilance  protect;  them- 
selves under  the  dreadful  apprehension  of  an  un- 
known, perpetual  slavery,  pent  up  within  the  narrow 
confines  of  a  vessel,  sometimes  six  or  seven  hundred 
together,  where  they  lie  as  close  as  possible.  Under 
these  complicated  distresses,  they  are  often  reduced 
to  a  state  of  desperation,  wherein  many  have  leaped 
into  the  sea  and  kept  themselves  under  water  till 
they  were  drowned ;  others  have  starved  themselves 
to  death,  for  the  prevention  whereof  some  masters 
of  vessels  have  cut  off  the  legs  and  arms  of  a  num- 
ber of  those  poor  desperate  creatures  to  terrify  the 
rest.  Great  numbers  have  also  frequently  been 
killed,  and  some  deliberately  put  to  death  under  the 
greatest  torture,  when  they  have  attempted  to  rise, 
in  order  to  free  themselves  from  their  present  misery 
and  the  slavery  designed  them. 

When  the  vessels  arrive  at  their  destined  port  in 
the  Colonies,  the  poor  negroes  are  to  be  disposed  of 
to  the  planters ;  and  here  they  are  again  exposed, 
naked,  without  any  distinction  of  sex,  to  the  brutal 
examination  of  their  purchasers ;  and  this,  as  it  may 
well  be  judged,  is  to  many  of  them  another  occasion 
of  deep  distress,  especially  to  the  females;  add  to 


GREAT    BRITAIN   AND    HER   COLONIES.    39 

this,  that  near  connections  must  now  again  be  sepa- 
rated, to  go  with  their  several  purchasers.*  In  this 
melancholy  scene,  mothers  are  seen  hanging  over 
their  daughters,  bedewing  their  naked  breasts  with 
tears,  and  daughters  clinging  to  their  parents,  not 
knowing  what  new  stage  of  distress  must  follow  their 
separation,  or  if  ever  they  shall  meet  again ;  and 
here,  what  sympathy,  what  commiseration,  are  they 
to  expect  ?  Why,  indeed,  if  they  will  not  separate 
as  readily  as  their  owners  think  proper,  the  whipper 
is  called  for  and  the  lash"  exercised  upon  their  naked 
bodies  till  obliged  to  part. 

Can  any  human  heart  that  retains  a  fellow-feeling 
for  the  sufferings  of  mankind  be  unconcerned  at  re- 
lations of  such  grievous  affliction,  to  which  this  op- 
pressed  part  of   our  species   are   subjected  ?      God-^-j 
gave  to  man  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and     I 
over   the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  &c.,    I 
but  imposed  no  involuntary  subjection  of  one  man  to    ) 
another. 

The  truth  of  this  position  has  of  late  been  clearly 
set  forth  by  persons  of  reputation  and  ability,  particu- 
larly George  Wallis,  in  his  System  of  the  Laws  of 
Scotland,  whose  sentiments  are  so  worthy  the  notice 
of  all  considerate  persons  that  I  shall  here  repeat  a 

#  Precisely  the  same  scenes  may  be  witnessed,  in  our  day, 
at  the  slave-auctions  of  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union. 
The  system  of  internal  slave-trade  tolerated  by  our  laws  is 
scarcely  less  revolting  in  its  details  than  the  evil  we  profess 
to  have  abolished. 


40  CAUTION    AND   WARNING   TO 

part  of  what  he  has  not  long  since  published  concern- 
ing the  African  trade, — viz. : 

"If  this  trade  admits  of  a  moral  or  a  rational 
justification,  every  crime,  even  the  most  atrocious, 
may  be  justified.  Government  was  instituted  for  the 
good  of  mankind.  Kings,  princes,  governors,  are 
not  proprietors  of  those  who  are  subjected  to  their 
authority:  they  have  not  a  right  to  make  them 
miserable.  On  the  contrary,  their  authority  is  vested 
in  them  that  they  may,  by  the  just  exercise  of  it, 
promote  the  happiness  of  their  people.  Of  course 
they  have  not  a  right  to  dispose  of  their  liberty  and 
to  sell  them  for  slaves.  Besides,  no  man  has  a  right 
to  acquire  or  to  purchase  them ;  men  and  their  liberty 
are  not  either  salable  or  purchasable :  one,  therefore, 
has  nobody  but  himself  to  blame,  in  case  he  shall 
find  himself  deprived  of  a  man  whom  he  thought  he 
had,  by  buying  for  a  price,  made  his  own ;  for  he 
dealt  in  a  trade  which  was  illicit  and  was  prohibited 
by  the  most  obvious  dictates  of  humanity.  For  these 
reasons,  every  one  of  those  unfortunate  men  who  are 
pretended  to  be  slaves  has  a  right  to  be  declared  to 
be  free,  for  he  never  lost  his  liberty ;  he  could  not 
lose  it  ]  his  prince  has  no  power  to  dispose  of  him  ; 
of  course  the  sale  was  void.  This  right  he  carries 
about  with  him,  and  is  entitled  everywhere  to  get 
it  declared.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  he  comes  into  a 
country  in  which  the  judges  are  not  forgetful  of 
their  own  humanity,  it  is  their  duty  to  remember 
that  he  is  a  man  and  to  declare  him  to  be  free. 


GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  HER  COLONIES.  41 

This  is  the  law  of  nature,  which  is  obligatory  on  all 
men  at  all  times  and  in  all  places.  Would  not  any  of 
us,  who  should  be  snatched  by  pirates  from  his  native 
land,  think  himself  cruelly  abused,  and  at  all  times 
entitled  to  be  free?  Have  not  these  unfortunate 
Africans,  who  meet  with  the  same  cruel  fate,  the  same 
right  ?  Are  not  they  men  as  well  as  we,  and  have 
they  not  the  same  sensibility  ?  Let  us  not,  there- 
fore, defend  or  support  a  usage  which  is  contrary  to 
all  laws  of  humanity." 

Francis  Hutchinson  also,  in  his  System  of  Moral 
Philosophy,  speaking  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  says, 
<(  He  who  detains  another  by  force  in  slavery  is 
always  bound  to  prove  his  title.  The  slave  sold  or 
carried  away  into  a  distant  country  must  not  be 
obliged  to  prove  a  negative,  that  he  never  forfeited 
his  liberty.  The  violent  possessor  must  in  all  cases 
show  his  title,  especially  where  the  old  proprietor  is 
well  known.  In  this  case  each  man  is  the  original 
proprietor  of  his  own  liberty.  The  proof  of  his  losing 
it  must  be  incumbent  on  those  who  deprived  him  of 
it  by  force.  Strange  (says  the  same  author)  that  in 
any  nation  where  a  sense  of  liberty  prevails,  where 
the  Christian  religion  is  professed,  custom  and  high 
prospect  of  gain  can  so  stupefy  the  consciences  of 
men,  and  all  sense  of  natural  justice,  that  they  can 
hear  such  computation  made  about  the  value  of  their 
fellow-men  and  their  liberty,  without  abhorrence  and 
indignation  I" 

The   noted    Baron   Montps^n'g"    gives   it   as  his 


42  CAUTION    AND    WARNING    TO 

opinion,  in  his  Spirit  of  Law,  page  348,  "  That 
nothing  more  assimilates  a  man  to  a  beast  than  living 
amongst  freemen,  himself  a  slave  :  such  people  as 
these  are  the  natural  enemies  of  society,  and  their 
number  must  always  be  dangerous." 

The  author  of  a  pam^h|rt,lntply  jvnnfprl  in  Lon- 
don, entitled  An  Essay  in  Vindication  of  the  Conti- 
nental Colonies  of  America,  writes,  "  That  the  bond- 
age we  have  imposed  on  the  Africans  is  absolutely 
repugnant  to  justice.  That  it  is  highly  inconsistent 
with  civil  policy.  First,  as  it  tends  to  suppress  all 
improvements  in  arts  and  sciences,  without  which  it 
is  morally  impossible  that  any  nation  should  be  happy 
or  powerful.  Secondly,  as  it  may  deprave  the  minds 
of  the  freemen,  steeling  their  hearts  against  the 
laudable  feelings  of  virtue  and  humanity.  And, 
lastly,  as  it  endangers  the  community  by  the  de- 
structive effects  of  civil  commotions.  Need  I  add  to 
these  (says  that  author)  what  every  heart  which  is 
not  callous  to  all  tender  feelings  will  readily  suggest, 
that  it  is  shocking  to  humanity,  violative  of  every 
generous  sentiment,  abhorrent  utterly  from  the  Chris- 
tian religion  ? — for,  as  Montesquieu  very  justly  ob- 
serves, '  We  must  suppose  them  not  to  be  men,  or  a 
suspicion  would  follow  that  we  ourselves  are  not  Chris- 
tians/ There  cannot  be  a  more  dangerous  maxim 
than  that  necessity  is  a  plea  for  injustice.  For  who 
shall  fix  the  degree  of  this  necessity  ?  "What  villain 
so  atrocious  who  may  not  urge  this  excuse,  or,  as 
Milton  has  happily  expressed  it, — 


GREAT   BRITAIN    AND    HER    COLONIES.    43 

'And  with  necessity, 
The  tyrant's  plea,  excuse  his  devilish  deed'  ? 

That  our  colonies  want  people  is  a  very  weak  argu- 
ment for  so  inhuman  a  violation  of  justice.  Shall  a 
civilized,  a  Christian  nation  encourage  slavery  because 
the  barbarous,  savage,  lawless  African  hath  done  it  ? 
Monstrous  thought!  To  what  end  do  we  profess 
a  religion  whose  dictates  we  so  flagrantly  violate  ? 
Wherefore  have  we  that  pattern  of  goodness  and 
humanity  if  we  refuse  to  follow  it  ?  How  long  shall 
we  continue  a  practice  which  policy  rejects,  justice 
condemns,  and  piety  dissuades  ?  Shall  the  Ame- 
ricans persist  in  a  conduct  which  cannot  be  justified, 
or  persevere  in  oppression  from  which  their  hearts 
must  recoil  ?  If  the  barbarous  Africans  shall  con- 
tinue to  enslave  each  other,  let  the  demon  slavery 
remain  among  them,  that  their  crime  may  include 
its  own  punishment.  Let  not  Christians,  by  ad- 
ministering to  their  wickedness,  confess  their  re- 
ligion to  be  a  useless  refinement,  their  profession 
vain,  and  themselves  as  inhuman  as  the  savages  they 
detest." 

James^fesfeep,  in  his  Discourses  on  Natural  Re- 
ligion and  Social  Virtue,  also  shows  his  just  indigna- 
tion at  this  wicked  practice,  which  he  declares  to  be  a 
criminal  and  outrageous  violation  of  the  natural  right 
of  mankind.  At  page  156,  vol.  ii.,  he  says,  "  Should 
we  have  read,  concerning  the  Greeks  or  Romans  of 
old,  that  they  traded  with  a  view  to  make  slaves  of 
their  own  species,  whom  they  certainly  knew  that 


44  CAUTION   AND   WARNING    TO 

this  would  involve  in  schemes  of  blood  and  murder, 
of  destroying  or  enslaving  each  other;  that  they  even 
fomented  wars,  and  engaged  whole  nations  and  tribes 
in  open  hostilities  for  their  own  private  advantage ; 
that  they  had  no  detestation  of  the  violence  and 
cruelty,  but  only  feared  the  ill  success,  of  their  in- 
human enterprises ;  that  they  carried  men  like  them- 
selves, their  brethren,  and  the  offspring  of  the  same 
common  parent,  to  be  sold  like  beasts  of  prey  or 
beasts  of  burden,  and  put  them  to  the  same  re- 
proachful trial  of  their  soundness,  strength,  and 
capacity  for  greater  bodily  service;  that,  quite  for- 
getting and  renouncing  the  original  dignity  of  human 
nature,  communicated  to  all,  they  treated  them  with 
more  severity  and  ruder  discipline  than  even  the  ox 
or  the  ass,  who  are  void  of  understanding :  should 
we  not,  if  this  had  been  the  case,  have  naturally  been 
led  to  despise  all  their  pretended  refinements  of 
morality,  and  to  have  concluded  that,  as  they  were 
not  nations  destitute  of  politeness,  they  must  have 
been  entire  strangers  to  virtue  and  benevolence  ? 

"  But,  notwithstanding  this,  we  ourselves  (who  pro- 
fess to  be  Christians,  and  boast  of  the  peculiar  advan- 
tages we  enjoy  by  means  of  an  express  revelation  of  our 
duty  from  Heaven)  are,  in  effect,  these  very  untaught 
and  rude  heathen  countries.  With  all  our  superior 
light,  we  instil  into  those  whom  we  call  savage  and 
barbarous  the  most  despicable  opinion  of  human 
nature.  We,  to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  weaken 
and  dissolve  the  universal  tie  that  binds  and  unites 


GREAT   BRITAIN   AND    HER   COLONIES.    45 

mankind.  We  practise  what  we  should  exclaim 
against,  as  the  utmost  excess  of  cruelty  and  tyranny, 
if  nations  of  the  world,  differing  in  color  and  form 
of  government  from  ourselves,  were  so  possessed  of 
empire  as  to  be  able  to  reduce  us  to  a  state  of  un- 
merited and  brutish  servitude.  Of  consequence,  we 
sacrifice  our  reason,  our  humanity,  our  Christianity, 
to  an  unnatural,  sordid  gain.  We  teach  other  nations 
to  despise  and  trample  under  foot  all  the  obligations 
of  social  virtue.  We  take  the  most  effectual  method 
to  prevent  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  by  repre- 
senting it  as  a  scheme  of  power  and  barbarous  op- 
pression, and  an  enemy  to  the  natural  privileges  and 
rights  of  men. 

"  Perhaps  all  that  I  have  now  offered  may  be  of  very 
little  weight  to  restrain  this  enormity,  this  aggravated 
iniquity.  However,  I  shall  still  have  the  satisfaction 
of  having  entered  my  private  protest  against  a  prac- 
tice which,  in  my  opinion,  bids  that  God,  who  is  the 
God  and  Father  of  the  Gentiles  unconverted  to 
Christianity,  most  daring  and  bold  defiance,  and 
spurns  at  all  the  principles  both  of  natural  and  re- 
vealed religion." 

How  the  British  nation  first  came  to  be  concerned 
in  a  practice  by  which  the  rights  and  liberties  of  man- 
kind are  so  violently  infringed,  and  which  is  so  oppo- 
site to  the  apprehensions  Englishmen  have  always 
had  of  what  natural  justice  requires,  is  indeed  sur- 
prising. It  was  about  the  year  1563,  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  that  the  English  first  engaged 


46  CAUTION   AND   WARNING   TO 

in  the  Guinea  trade  j  when  it  appears,  from  an  ac- 
count in  Hill's  Naval  History,  page  293,  that  when 
Captain  Hawkins  returned  from  his  first  voyage  to 
Africa,  that  generous-spirited  princess,  attentive  to 
the  interest  of  her  subjects,  sent  for  the  commander, 
to  whom  she  expressed  her  concern  lest  any  of  the 
African  negroes  should  be  carried  off  without  their 
free  consent,  declaring  it  would  be  detestable,  and 
call  down  the  vengeance  of  Heaven  upon  the  under- 
takers. Captain  Hawkins  promised  to  comply  with 
the  Queen's  injunction :  nevertheless,  we  find  in  the 
account  given  in  the  same  history  of  Hawkins's 
second  voyage,  the  author  using  these  remarkable 
words,  Here  began  the  horrid  practice  of  forcing  the 
Africans  into  slavery. 

Labat,  a  Roman  missionary,  in  his  account  of  the 
Isles  of  America,  at  page  114  of  vol.  iv.,  mentions, 
that  Louis  XII.,  father  to  the  present  French  king's 
grandfather,  was  extremely  uneasy  at  a  law  by  which 
all  the  negroes  of  his  colonies  were  to  be  made 
slaves;  but,  it  being  strongly  urged  to  him  as  the 
readiest  means  for  their  conversion  to  Christianity, 
he  acquiesced  therewith. 

And,  although  we  have  not  many  accounts  of  the 
impressions  which  this  piratical  invasion  of  the  rights 
of  mankind  gave  to  serious-minded  people  when  first 
engaged  in,  yet  it  did  not  escape  the  notice  of  some 
who  might  be  esteemed  in  a  peculiar  manner  as  watch- 
men, in  their  day,  to  the  different  societies  of  Chris- 
tians whereunto  they  belonged.  Richard  Baxter,  an 


GREAT   BRITAIN   AND   HER   COLONIES.    47 

eminent  preacher  amongst  the  non-conformists  in 
the  last  century,  well  known  and  particularly  es- 
teemed by  most  of  the  serious  Presbyterians  and  In- 
dependents, in  his  Christian  Directory,  mostly  wrote 
about  a  hundred  years  ago,  fully  shows  his  detesta- 
tion of  this  practice  in  the  following  words  : — "  Do 
you  not  mark  how  God  hath  followed  you  with 
plagues,  and  may  not  conscience  tell  you  that  it  is 
for  your  inhumanity  to  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men  ? 
To  go  as  pirates  and  catch  up  poor  negroes  or  people 
of  another  land,  that  never  forfeited  life  nor  liberty, 
and  to  make  them  slaves  and  sell  them,  is  one  of  the 
worst  kinds  of  thievery  in  the  world;  and  such  persons 
are  to  be  taken  for  the  common  enemies  of  mankind; 
and  they  that  buy  them  and  use  them  as  beasts  for  their 
mere  commodity,  and  betray,  or  destroy,  or  neglect 
their  souls,  are  fitter  to  be  called  devils  than  Chris- 
tians. It  is  a  heinous  sin  to  buy  them,  unless  it  be 
in  charity  to  deliver  them.  Undoubtedly  they  are 
presently  bound  to  deliver  them,  because,  by  right, 
the  man  is  his  own  :  therefore,  no  man  else  can  have 
a  just  title  to  him." 

We  also  find  George  Fox,  a  man  of  exemplary 
piety,  who  was  the  principal  instrument  in  gathering 
the  religious  society  of  people  called  Quakers,  ex- 
pressing his  concern  and  fellow-feeling  for  the  bond- 
age of  the  negroes,  in  a  discourse  taken  from  his 
mouth,  in  Barbadoes,  in  the  year  1671.  He  says, 
"  Consider  with  yourselves  if  you  were  in  the  same 
condition  as  the  blacks  are,  who  came  strangers  to 


48  CAUTION   AND    WARNING   TO 

you  and  were  sold  to  you  as  slaves }  I  say,  if  this 
should  be  the  condition  of  you  or  yours,  you  would 
think  it  hard  measure,  yea,  and  very  great  bondage 
and  cruelty.  And  therefore  consider  seriously  of  this, 
and  do  you  for  and  to  them  as  you  would  willingly 
have  them  or  any  other  to  do  unto  you  were  you  in  the 
like  slavish  condition,  and  bring  them  to  know  the 
Lord  Christ. " 

Do  we  indeed  believe  the  truths  declared  in  the 
gospel  ?  Are  we  persuaded  that  the  threatenings  as 
well  as  the  promises  therein  contained  will  have  their 
accomplishment  ?  If  indeed  we  do,  must  we  not 
tremble  to  think  what  a  load  of  guilt  lies  upon  our 
nation  generally  and  individually,  so  far  as  we  in 
any  degree  abet  or  countenance  this  aggravated 
iniquity  ? 

I  shall  now  conclude  with  an  extract  from  an  ad- 
dress of  a  late  author  to  the  merchants  and  others 
who  are  concerned  in  carrying  on  the  Guinea  trade, 
which  also  in  a  great  measure  is  applicable  to 
others,  who,  for  the  love  of  gain,  are  in  any  way 
concerned  in  promoting  or  maintaining  the  captivity 
_of  the  negroes  : — 

"  As  the  business  you  are  publicly  carrying  on  be- 
fore the  world  has  a  bad  aspect,  and  you  are  sensible 
most  men  make  objections  against  it,  you  ought  to 
justify  it  to  the  world  upon  principles  of  reason, 
equity,  and  humanity,  to  make  it  appear  that  it  is 
no  unjust  invasion  of  the  persons,  or  encroachments 
on  the  rights  of  men,  or  forever  to  lay  it  aside.  But 


GREAT   BRITAIN   AND    HER   COLONIES.    49 

laying  aside  the  resentment  of  men,  which  is  but  of 
little  or  no  moment  in  comparison  with  that  of  the 
Almighty,  think  of  a  future  reckoning;  consider 
how  you  shall  come  off  in  the  great  and  awful  day 
of  account :  you  now  heap  up  riches,  and  live  in 
pleasure,  but,  oh,  what  will  you  do  in  the  end 
thereof?  and  that  is  not  far  off.  "What  if  death 
should  seize  upon  you  and  hurry  you  out  of  this 
world  under  all  that  load  of  blood-guiltiness  that  now 
lies  upon  your  souls  ?  The  gospel  expressly  declares 
that  thieves  and  murderers  shall  not  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Consider  that  at  the  same  time 
and  by  the  same  means  you  now  treasure  up  worldly 
riches  you  are  treasuring  up  to  yourselves  wrath 
against  the  day  of  wrath,  and  vengeance  that  shall 
come  upon  the  workers  of  iniquity,  unless  prevented 
by  a  timely  repentance. 

"  And  what  greater  iniquity,  what  crime  that  is 
more  heinous,  that  carries  in  it  more  complicated  guilt, 
can  you  name,  than  that  in  the  habitual,  deliberate 
practice  of  which  you  now  live  ?  How  can  you  lift  up 
your  guilty  eyes  to  heaven  ?  How  can  you  pray  for 
mercy  to  Him  that  made  you,  or  hope  for  any  favor 
from  Him  that  formed  you,  while  you  go  on  thus 
grossly  and  openly  to  dishonor  him  in  debasing  and 
destroying  the  noblest  workmanship  of  his  hands  in 
this  lower  world  ?  He  is  the  Father  of  men ;  and  do 
you  think  he  will  not  resent  such  treatment  of  his 
offspring  whom  he  hath  so  loved  as. to  give  his  only- 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  might 
5 


50  CAUTION   AND   WARNING,    ETC. 

not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life  ?  This  love  of 
God  to  man,  revealed  in  the  gospel,  is  a  great  aggra- 
vation of  your  guilt ;  for  if  God  so  loved  us  we  ought 
also  to  love  one  another.  You  remember  the  fate  of 
the  servant  who  took  hold  of  his  fellow-servant,  who 
was  in  his  debt,  by  the  throat  and  cast  him  into  prison  : 
think,  then,  and  tremble  to  think,  what  will  be  your 
fate,  who  take  your  fellow-servants  by  the  throat, 
that  owe  you  not  a  penny,  and  make  them  prisoners 
for  life. 

"  Give  yourselves  leave  to  reflect  impartially  upon 
and  consider  the  nature  of  this  man-trade,  which  if 
you  do,  your  hearts  must  needs  relent,  if  you  have 
not  lost  all  sense  of  humanity,  all  pity  and  compassion 
towards  those  of  your  own  kind,  to  think  what  calami- 
ties, what  havoc  and  destruction  among  them,  you  have 
been  the  authors  of,  for  filthy  lucre's  sake.  God  grant 
you  may  be  sensible  of  your  guilt  and  repent  in 
time !" 


A  SHORT  ACCOUNT 


F  THAT  PART  OF 


AFRICA  INHABITED  BY  THE  NEGROES,  &c. 
BY  ANTHONY  BENEZET. 


IT  is  a  truth,  as  sorrowful  as  obvious,  that  mankind 
too  generally  are  actuated  by  false  motives,  and  sub- 
stitute an  imaginary  interest  in  the  room  of  that 
which  is  real  and  permanent.  And  it  must  be  ac- 
knowledged, by  every  man  who  is  sincerely  desirous 
of  becoming  acquainted  with  himself  and  impartially 
inspects  his  own  heart,  that  weakness  and  inbred 
corruption  attend  human  nature,  which  cannot  be 
restored  to  its  original  purity  but  through  the  efficacy 
of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  blessed  Saviour.  So 
that,  notwithstanding  the  imagined  moral  rectitude 
pleaded  for,  and  the  boasted  pretences  of  the  present 
age  to  refined  conceptions  of  things  beyond  our  fore- 
fathers, till  this  divine  help  is  embraced,  the  heart 
of  man  will  remain  corrupt,  and  its  power  of  distin- 
guishing between  good  and  evil  will  still  be  obscured 
by  prejudice,  passion,  and  interest.  Covetousness  and 
pride  have  introduced  many  iniquitous  practices  into 
civil  society,  which,  though  odious  in  themselves  and 
most  pernicious  in  their  consequences,  yet,  being 
calculated  to  gratify  our  favorite  passions,  have  been 
adopted  through  custom  and  forced  so  strongly  by  ex- 
ample as  to  become  familiar  to  us,  so  that  by  degrees 

51 


52  BENEZET'S  ACCOUNT 

we  silence  the  dictates  of  conscience  and  reconcile 
ourselves  to  such  things  as  would,  when  first  proposed 
to  our  unprejudiced  minds,  have  struck  us  with 
amazement  and  horror. 

A  lamentable  and  shocking  instance  of  the  in- 
fluence which  the  love  of  gain  has  upon  the  minds 
of  those  who  yield  to  its  allurements,  even  when  con- 
trary to  the  dictates  of  reason  and  the  common  feel- 
ings of  humanity,  appears  in  the  prosecution  of  the 
negro-trade,  in  which  the  English  nation  has  long 
been  deeply  concerned  and  some  in  this  province  have 
lately  engaged, — an  evil  of  so  deep  a  dye  and  at- 
tended with  such  dreadful  consequences,  that  no  well- 
disposed  person,  (anxious  for  the  welfare  of  himself, 
his  country,  or  posterity,)  who  knows  the  tyranny, 
oppression,  and  cruelty  with  which  this  iniquitous 
trade  is  carried  on,  can  be  a  silent  and  innocent 
spectator.  How  many  thousands  of  our  harmless 
fellow-creatures  have,  for  a  long  course  of  years, 
fallen  a  sacrifice  to  that  selfish  avarice  which  gives 
life  to  this  complicated  wickedness !  The  iniquity 
of  being  engaged  in  a  trade  by  which  so  great  a  num- 
ber of  innocent  people  are  yearly  destroyed  in  an 
untimely  and  miserable  manner,  is  greatly  aggravated 
from  the  consideration  that  we,  as  a  people,  have  been 
peculiarly  favored  with  the  light  of  the  gospel,  that 
revelation  of  divine  love  which  the  angels  introduced 
to  the  world  by  a  declaration  of  peace  on  earth  and 
good-will  to  men,  of  every  nation,  kindred,  tongue, 
and  people.  How  miserable  must  be  our  condition 


OF    AFRICA,   ETC.  53 

if,  for  filthy  lucre,  we  should  continue  to  act  so  con- 
trary to  the  nature  of  this  divine  call,  the  purpose 
of  which  is  to  introduce  a  universal  and  aifectionate 
brotherhood  in  the  whole  human  species,  by  removing, 
from  the  heart  of  every  individual  who  submits  t.r> 
its  operation,  the  darkness  and  corruption  of  nature, 
and  transt'orming  the  semsh,  wrathful,  proud  spirit 
intcTmeekness,  purity,  and  love :  for  this  end  the  Son 
of  God  became  man,  suffered,  and  died,  and  the  whole 
tenor  of  the  gospel  declares,  that  for  those  who  re- 
fuse or  neglect  the  offers  of  this  great  salvation,  the 
Son  of  God  has  suffered  in  vain. 

The  end  proposed  by  this  essay  is  to  lay  before  the 
candid  reader  the  depth  of  evil  attending  this  ini- 
quitous practice,  in  the  prosecution  of  which,  our 
duty  to  God,  the  common  Father  of  the  family  of 
the  whole  earth,  and  our  duty  of  love  to  our  fellow- 
creatures,  is  totally  disregarded;  all  social  connection 
and  tender  ties  of  nature  being  broken,  desolation 
and  bloodshed  continually  fomented  in  those  unhappy 
people's  country.  It  is  also  intended  to  invalidate 
the  false  arguments  which  are  frequently  advanced 
for  the  palliation  of  this  trade,  in  hopes  it  may  be 
some  inducement  to  those  who  are  not  defiled  there- 
with to  keep  themselves  clear ;  and  to  lay  before  such 
as  have  unwarily  engaged  in  it,  their  danger  of  totally 
losing  that  tender  sensibility  to  the  sufferings  of  their 
fellow-creatures,  the  want  whereof  sets  men  beneath 
the  brute  creation  ;  a  trade  by  which  many  thousands 
of  innocent  people  are  brought  under  the  greatest 
5* 


54  BENEZET'S  ACCOUNT 

anxiety  and  sufferings,  by  being  violently  rent  from 
their  native  country  in  the  most  cruel  manner,  and 
brought  to  our  colonies  to  be  employed  in  hard  labor 
in  climates  unsuited  to  their  nature,  or  in  a  state  of 
the  most  abject  and  barbarous  slavery,  subject  to  the 
humors  and  inhuman  lash  of  some  of  the  most  hard- 
hearted and  inconsiderate  of  mankind,  without  any 
hopes  of  ever  returning  to  their  native  land,  or  see- 
ing an  end  to  their  misery  j  nor  must  we  omit,  in 
this  dismal  account,  the  weight  of  blood  which  lies 
on  the  promoters  of  this  trade,  from  the  great  num- 
bers that  are  yearly  butchered  in  the  incursions  and 
battles  which  happen  between  the  negroes  in  order 
to  procure  the  number  delivered  to  the  Europeans, 
and  the  many  of  these  poor  creatures  whose  hearts 
are  broken,  and  they  perish  through  misery  and 
grief,  on  the  passage.  May  the  Almighty  preserve 
the  inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania  from  being  further 
defiled  by  a  trade  which  is  entered  upon  from  such 
isensual  motives  and  carried  on  by  such  devilish 
means ! 

Persons  whose  minds  are  engrossed  by  the  pleasures 
and  profits  of  this  life  are  generally  so  taken  up  with 
present  objects  that  they  are  but  little  affected  with 
the  distant  sufferings  of  their  fellow-creatures,  es- 
pecially when  their  wealth  is  thereby  increased. 
Nevertheless,  every  one  who  is  in  any  respect  con- 
cerned in  this  wicked  traffic,  if  not  so  hardened  by 
the  love  of  wealth  as  to  be  void  of  feeling,  must, 
upon  a  serious  recollection,  be  impressed  with  sur- 


OF    AFRICA,    ETC.  55 

prise  and  terror,  from  a  sense  that  there  is  a  righteous  — j 
God,  and  a  state  of  retribution  which  will  last  forever.    / 
It  is  frequently  alleged,  in  excuse  for  this  trade,  that  / 
the  negroes  sold  in  our  plantations  are  mostly  persons  / 
who  have  been  taken  prisoners  in  those  wars  which 
arise  among  themselves  from  their  mutual  animosi- 
ties,   and    that  these  prisoners   would   be   sacrificed 
to  the  resentment  of  those  who  have   taken   them 
captive,  if  they  were  not  purchased  and  brought  away 
by  the  Europeans.     It  is  also  represented   that  the 
negroes  are  generally  a  stupid,  savage  people,  whose 
situation  in  their  own  country  is  necessitous  and  un- 
happy, which  has  induced  many  to  believe  that  the 
bringing  them  from  their  native  land  is  rather  a  kind- 
ness than  an  injury. 

To  cqnfute_these  false_representations,  the  follow- 
ing extracts  are  proposed  to  the  candid  reader's  con- 
sideration :  they  are  taken  from  the  writings  of  the 
principal  officers,  not  only  in  the  English,  but  in  the 
French  and  Dutch  factories  or  settlements  in  Guinea, 
some   of    whom   have   lived    many   years    in   those 
countries,  and  have  been  eye-witnesses  to  the  trans- 
actions  they  relate.     By  which  it  will  appear  that 
the    negroes    are  generally  a  sensible,  humane,  and 
sociable  people,  and  that  their  capacity  is  as  good  and 
as   capable  of   improvement    as   that  of  the  whites.  — > 
That  their  country,  though  unfriendly  to  the  Euro-     / 
peans,  yet    appears    peculiarly   agreeable    and   well   / 
adapted  to  the  nature  of  the  blacks,  and  so  fruitful  / 
as   to   furnish   its   inhabitants   plentifully  with   the 


56  BENEZET'S  ACCOUNT 

necessaries  of  life  with  much  less  labor  than  in  our 
more  northern  climates. 

'^And,  as  to  the  common  argument  alleged  in  de- 
fence of  the  trade,-^-viz. :  that  the  slaves  sold  to  the 
Europeans  are  captives  taken  in  war,  who  would  be 
destroyed  by  their  conquerors  if  not  thus  purchased, 
it  is  without  foundation :  for,  although  there  were 
doubtless ^wars  among  the  negroes  before  the  Euro- 
peans began  to  trade  with  them,  yet  certain  it  is 
that  sinc_fi__that  time  those  calamities  have  pro- 
digiously increased,  which  is  principally  owing.  to_the 
solicitations  of  the  white  people,  who  have  instigated 
the  poor  Africans  by  every  method,  even  the  most 
iniquitous  and  cruel,  to  procure  slaves  to  load  their 
vessels,  which  they  freely  and  gladly  purchase,  with- 
out any  regard  to  the  precepts  of  the  gospel,  the 
feelings  of  humanity,  or  the  common  dictates  of 
reason  and  equity. 

This  plainly  appears  from  the  account  given  by 
Andrew  Brue,  General  Director  of  the  French  fac- 
tory at  Senegal,  who  travelled  much  on  and  about 
the  two  great  rivers  of  Senegal  and  Gambia.  In 
Astley's  Collection  of  Voyages,  he  is  spoken  of  as  a 
person  of  judgment,  and  one  who  had  had  sufficient 
opportunities,  by  his  long  residence  there,  of  gaining 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  manners,  customs,  and 
dispositions  of  the  people  inhabiting  the  country  for 
about  four  hundred  miles  along  the  coast  extending 
on  each  side  the  before-mentioned  rivers.  Speaking 
of  the  Papel  negroes,  (among  whom  he  was  then  en- 


OF    AFRICA,    En-'C.  57 

deavoring  to  erect  a  factory,)  he  says,  u  They  are  I 
at  continual  wars  with  their  neighbors,  whom  they 
invade  as  often  as  they  think  it  for  their  advantage, 
....  These  wars  of  theirs  are  never  long.  Generally 
speaking,  they  are  incursions  or  expeditions  of  five 
or  six  days."  He  adds, — 

"  The  Europeans  are  far  from  desiring  to  act  as 
peace-makers  among  them,  (i.e.  the  negroes,)  which 
would  be  contrary  to  their  interest,  since  the  greater 
the  wars  are,  the  more  slaves."  £- 

And  now,  reader,  if,  from  the  example  of  others, 
and  without  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  deplorable 
consequences  attendant  on  this  trade,  thou  hast  in- 
advertently engaged  therein,  let  me  beseech  thee,  by 
the  mercies  of  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  (those  mercies 
which,  perhaps,  ere  long,  thou  and  I  shall  desire  to 
fly  to  as  our  only  refuge,)  that  thou  wouldst  refrain  a 
practice  so  inconsistent  with  thy  duty  both  as  a 
Christian  and  a  man.  Remember,  the  first  and  chief  \ 
commandment  is,  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart.  And  that  the  second,  like  unto 
it,  is,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  That 
our  blessed  Redeemer  has  enjoined  us  to  do  unto 
others  as  we  would  they  should  do  unto  us,  and  that 
it  will  be  those  who  have  been  righteous  and  merciful 
to  their  fellow-creatures  that  will  be  entitled  to  the 
mercy  of  the  Great  Judge  of  heaven  and  earth,  be- 
fore whom  we  must  all  appear  to  give  an  account  of 
the  deeds  done  in  the  body. 

And,  as  for  those  who    confess   themselves    now 


58  BENEZET'S  ACCOUNT 

convinced  of  the  iniquity  and  injustice  of  buying 
and  selling  their  fellow-creatures,  and  yet  continue  to 
keep  those  negroes  they  are  possessed  of  in  bondage, 
for  the  sake  of  the  profit  arising  from  their  labor,  it 
behooves  them  seriously  to  consider  their  motives  for 
such  a  conduct,  whether  the  distinction  they  make 
between  buying  a  negro  and  keeping  the  same  negro 
or  his  offspring  in  perpetual  bondage  is  not  a  plea 
founded  more  in  words  than  supported  by  truth;  for 
it  must  be  obvious,  to  every  person  who  is  not  blinded 
by  the  desire  of  gain,  that  the__rightjby_ which  these 
men  hold  the  negroes  in  bondage  is  no  other  than 
what  is  derived  from  those  who  stole  them,  who, 
having  no  other  title  but  that  which  robbers  have 
over  their  prey,  could  not  convey  any  better  to  the 
purchaser;  and  that,  therefore,  to  continue  to  hold 
them  in  bondage  for  worldly  advantage,  by  no  other 
right  than  that  which  those  guilty  men  give  them, 
is  consenting  to  and  partaking  of  their  guilt.  In- 
^taioces  may  fall  out  where  men  of  candor  may  be 
concerned  in  the  purchase  of  negroes  purely  from  a 
principle  of  charity ;  and  there  are  also  many  of  the 
blacks  among  us  whose  dispositions,  infirmities,  or 
age  makes  it  necessary  they  should  be  under  care ; 
but,  in  the  case  before  mentioned,  where  persons  de- 
clared themselves  convinced  of  the  injustice  and  ini- 
quity of  this  trade,  and  are  possessed  of  negroes 
who  are  capable  of  managing  for  themselves,  and 
have  sufficiently  paid,  by  their  labor,  for  their  pur- 
chase or  bringing  up,  besides  the  profit  some  families 


OP    AFRICA,    ETC.  59 

have  reaped,  during  a  long  course  of  years,  from  the 
labor  of  their  progenitors,  it  is  the  undoubted  duty 
of  their  possessors  to  restore  them  their  liberty,  and 
also  to  use  all  reasonable  endeavors  to  enable  them  to 
procure  a  comfortable  living,  not  only  as  an  act  of 
justice  to  the  individuals,  but  as  a  debt  due  on  ac- 
count of  the  oppression  and  injustice  perpetrated  on 
them  or  their  ancestors,  and  as  the  best  means  to 
avert  the  judgments  of  God,  which  it  is  to  be  feared 
will  fall  on  families  and  countries  in  proportion  as 
they  have,  more  or  less,  denied  themselves  with  this 
iniquitous  traffic. 

Doubts  may  arise  in  the  minds  of  some,  whether 
the  foregoing  account  relating  to  the  natural  capacity 
and  good  disposition  of  many  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Guinea,  and  of  the  violent  manner  in  which  they  ap- 
pear to  be  torn  from  their  native  land,  is  sufficiently 
founded  on  truth,  as  the  negroes  who  are  brought  to 
us  are  seldom  heard  to  complain,  and  do  not  manifest 
that  docility  and  quickness  of  parts  which  might  be 
expected  from  this  account.  Persons  who  may  make 
such  objections  are  desired  impartially  to  consider 
whether  this  is  not  owing  to  the  many  discourage- 
ments these  poor  Africans  labor  under,  though  in  an 
enlightened  Christian  country,  and  the  little  op- 
portunity they  have  of  exerting  and  improving  their 
natural  talents.  They  are  constantly  employed  in 
servile  labor;  and  the  abject  condition  in  which  we 
see  them  from  our  childhood  has  a  natural  tendency 
to  create  in  us  an  idea  of  a  superiority,  and  induces 


60  BENEZET'S  ACCOUNT 

many  to  look  upon  them  as  an  ignorant  and  con- 
temptible part  of  mankind.  Add  to  this,  that  they 
have  but  little  opportunity  of  freely  conversing  with 
such  of  the  whites  as  might  impart  instruction  to 
them,  the  endeavoring  of  which  would,  indeed,  by 
most  be  accounted  folly,  if  not  presumption.  A 
fondness  for  wealth,  or  for  gaining  esteem  and  honor, 
is  what  prompts  most  men  to  the  desire  of  excelling 
others;  but  these  motives  for  the  exertion  and  im- 
provement of  their  faculties  can  have  but  little  or  no 
influence  upon  the  minds  of  the  negroes,  few  of  them 
having  hopes  of  attaining  to  any  condition  beyond 
that  of  slavery;  so  that  thoughjthe. .natural  capacity  of 
many  of  them  be  ever  so  good,  yet  they  have  no  in- 
ducement or  opportunity  of  exerting  it  to  any  advan- 
tage, which  naturally  tends  to  depress  their  minds 
and  sink  their  spirits  into  habits  of  idleness  and  sloth, 
which  they  would,  in  all  likelihood,  have  been  free 
from  had  they  stood  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the 
white  people.  Nevertheless,  it  may  with  truth  be 
said,  that  among  those  who  have  obtained  their 
freedom,  as  well  as  those  who  remain  in  servitude, 
'some  have  manifested  as  much  sagacity  and  upright- 
ness of  heart  as  could  have  been  expected  from  the 
whites  under  the  like  circumstances ;  and,  if  all  the 
free  negroes  have  not  done  the  same,  is  it  a  matter 
of  surprise  ?  Have  we  not  reason  to  make  complaint 
with  respect  to  many  of  our  white  servants,  when 
from  under  our  care  ? — though  most  of  them  have  had 
much  greater  advantages  than  the  blacks,  who,  even 


OF    AFRICA,    ETC.  61 

when  free,  still  labor  under  the  difficulties  before 
mentioned,  having  but  little  access  to,  and  intercourse 
with,  the  white  people ;  they  yet  remained  confined 
within  the  former  limits  of  conversation  with  those 
of  their  own  color,  and  consequently  have  but  little 
more  opportunity  of  knowledge  and  improvement 
than  when  in  slavery. 

And,  if  they  seldom  complain  of  the  unjust  and 
cruel  usage  they  have  received  in  being  forced  from 
their  native  country,  &c.,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at; 
as  it  is  a  considerable  time  after  their  arrival  among 
us  before  they  can  speak  our  language,  and,  by  the 
time  they  are  able  to  express  themselves,  they  cannot 
but  observe,  from  the  behavior  of  the  whites,  that 
little  or  no  notice  would  be  taken  of  their  com- 
plaints. Yet  let  any  person  inquire  of  those  who  had 
attained  the  age  of  reason  before  they  were  brought 
from  their  native  land,  and  he  shall  hear  such  rela- 
tions as,  if  not  lost  to  the  common  feelings  of  hu- 
manity, will  sensibly  affect  his  heart.  The  case  of 
a  poor  negro,  not  long  since  brought  from  Guinea,  is 
a  recent  instance  of  this  kind.  From  his  first  arrival 
he  appeared  thoughtful  and  dejected,  the  cause  of 
which  was  not  known  till  he  was  able  to  speak  Eng- 
lish, when  the  account  he  gave  of  himself  was,  that 
he  had  a  wife  and  children  in  his  own  country;  that, 
some  of  them  being  sick  and  thirsty,  he  went  in  the 
night-time  to  fetch  water  at  a  spring,  where  he  was 
violently  seized  and  carried  away  by  some  persons  who 
lay  in  wait  to  catch  men,  whence  he  was  transported  to 


62  BENEZET'S  ACCOUNT 

America;  the  remembrance  of  his  family,  friends, 
and  other  connections  left  behind,  which  he  never 
expected  to  see  any  more,  were  the  principal  causes 
of  his  dejection  and  grief.  Can  any  compassionate 
heart  hear  this  relation  without  being  affected  with 
sympathy  and  sorrow?  And  doubtless  the  case  of 
many  of  these  unhappy  people  would,  upon  inquiry, 
appear  attended  with  circumstances  equally  tragical 
and  aggravating.  Now,  you  that  have  studied  the 
book  of  conscience,  and  those  that  are  learned  in 
the  law,  what  will  you  say  to  this  deplorable  case? 
When  and  how  has  this  man  forfeited  his  liberty  ? 
Does  not  justice  loudly  call  for  its  being  restored  to 
him  ?  Has  he  not  the  same  right  to  demand  it  as 
any  of  us  should  have  if  we  had  been  violently 
snatched  by  pirates  from  our  native  land  ?  Where 
instances  of  this  kind  frequently  occur,  and  are 
neither  inquired  into  nor  redressed  by  those  whose 
duty  it  is  to  seek  judgment  and  relieve  the  op- 
pressed, what  can  be  expected  but  that  the  groans 
and  cries  of  these  sufferers  will  reach  heaven  ?  and 
what  shall  you  do  when  God  riseth  up  ?  and  when  he 
visiteth,  what  shall  you  answer  him  ? 

It  is  scarce  to  be  doubted  but  that  the  foregoing 
accounts  will  beget  in  the  heart  of  every  considerate 
reader  an  earnest  desire  to  see  a  stop  put  to  this  com- 
plicated evil;  but  the  objection  with  many  is,  What 
shall  be  done  with  those  negroes  already  imported 
and  born  in  our  families?  Must  they  be  sent  to 
Africa?  There  are  objections  which  weigh  with 


Or    AFRICA,   ETC.  63 

many  well-disposed  people ;  and,  indeed,  it  must  be 
granted  there  are  difficulties  in  the  way,  nor  can  any 
general  change  be  made,  or  reformation  effected,  with- 
out some :  but  the  difficulties  are  not  so  great  but 
that  they  may  be  surmounted.  If  the  govern- 
ment was  so  sensible  of  the  iniquity  and  danger  at- 
tendant on  this  practice,  as  to  be  willing  to  seek  a 
remedy,  doubtless  the  Almighty  would  bless  this 
good  intention,  and  such  methods  would  be  thought 
of  as  would  not  only  put  an  end  to  the  unjust  op- 
pression of  the  negroes,  but  might  bring  them  under 
such  regulations  as  would  enable  them  to  become  pro- 
fitable members  of  society. 

Upon  the  whole  of  what  has  been  said,  it  must 
appear  to  every  honest,  unprejudiced  reader  that  the 
negroes  are  equally  entitled  to  the  common  privileges 
of  mankind  with  the  whites;  that  they  have  the  same 
rational  powers,  the  same  natural  affections,  and  are 
as  susceptible  of  pain  and  grief  as  they ;  that,  there- 
fore, the  bringing  and  keeping  them  in  bondage  is 
an  instance  of  oppression  and  injustice  of  the  most 
grievous  nature,  such  as  is  scarcely  to  be  paralleled 
by  any  example  in  the  present  or  former  ages.  Many 
of  its  woful  effects  have  already  been  expressed,  but 
those  which  more  particularly  call  for  the  notice  and 
redress  of  the  government  arise  from  its  incon- 
sistency with  every  thing  that  is  just  and  humane, 
whence  the  worst  effects  naturally  flow  to  the  religion 
and  morals  of  the  people  where  it  prevails.  Its  de- 
structive consequences  to  laboring  people  and  trades- 


64  BENEZET'S  ACCOUNT 

men  are  no  less  worthy  the  attention  of  those  who 
have  inclination  and  power  to  serve  their  country. 
This  rank  of  people,  as  they  are  the  chief  strength 
and  support  of  a  community,  so  their  situation  and 
welfare  call  for  the  particular  care  of  every  prudent 
government ;  but,  where  slave-keeping  prevails,  their 
places  and  services  being  supplied  by  the  negroes, 
they  find  themselves  slighted,  disregarded,  and  robbed 
of  the  natural  opportunities  of  labor  common  in 
other  countries,  whereby  they  are  much  discouraged 
and  their  families  often  reduced  to  want ;  to  which 
may  be  added  the  discouragement  also  given  by  this 
trade  to  many  poor  people  that  can  scarce  get  bread 
in  our  mother-country,  who,  if  not  prevented  on  ac- 
count of  the  great  number  of  negroes,  would  be 
likely  to  come  over  into  the  colonies,  where  they 
might  with  ease  procure  to  themselves  a  more  com- 
fortable living  than  at  home.  Another  direful  effect 
arises  from  the  fearful  apprehensions  and  terrors 
which  often  seize  the  minds  of  the  people,  for  the 
suppression  of  which  the  most  cruel  methods  are 
pursued,  such  as  are  indeed  a  reproach  to  Christianity, 
and  will  by  degrees  harden  the  hearts  of  those  who 
are  active  therein,  so  as  totally  to  exclude  them  from 
that  tenderness  and  sympathy  for  the  sufferings  of 
their  fellow- creatures  which  constitutes  the  happiness 
of  society  and  is  the  glory  of  intelligent  beings.  As 
for  the  possessors  of  the  negroes  themselves,  though 
the  sumptuousness  and  ease  in  which  they  live,  and 
the  attendance  and  obsequiousness  of  their  slaves, 


OF    AFRICA,   ETC.  65 

may  raise  ill  their  minds  an  imagined  apprehension 
of  their  being  persons  more  happy  and  of  greater  im- 
portance than  other  people,  who  do  not  live  in  the  like 
affluence  and  state,  yet  happy  would  it  be  if  they 
were  sensible  how  great  is  their  mistake,  and  could 
be  persuaded  seriously  to  consider  and  apply  the  para- 
ble of  the  rich  man  and  poor  Lazarus  mentioned  by  our 
Saviour,  whereby  they  might  plainly  perceive  that 
they  have  no  cause  to  exult,  because  of  their  power 
and  plenty,  but  have  rather  occasion  to  mourn  over 
themselves,  their  children,  and  their  country;  the 
natural  effect  of  their  situation  being  such,  as  has 
been  repeatedly  observed,  "  To  fill  men  with  haughti- 
ness, tyranny,  luxury,  and  barbarity;  corrupting  the 
minds  and  debasing  the  morals  of  their  children,  to 
the  unspeakable  prejudice  of  religion  and  virtue, 
and  the  exclusion  of  that  holy  spirit  of  universal 
love,  meekness,  and  charity  which  is  the  unchange- 
able nature  and  glory  of  true  Christianity." 


THOUGHTS 


S  L  A  Y  E  R  Y, 


JOHN  WESLEY,  A.M. 


"  AND  THE  LORD  SAID— WHAT  HAST  THOU  DONE  ?  THE  VOICE  OF  THT 
BROTHER'S  BLOOD  CRIETH  UNTO  ME  FROM  THE  GROUND." — GEN.  chap.  iv. 


ORIGINALLY  FEINTED  IN  LONDON. 

9 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  author  of  the  following  pages  needs  no  in- 
troduction or  commendation  to  the  intelligent  reader. 

As  the  founder  of  a  great  church  polity,  his 
authority  is  universally  acknowledged  within  that 
religious  community,  and  generally  respected  over 
the  Christian  world. 

More  especially  is  this  the  case  in  some  of  the 
Southern  States  of  our  Union,  where  the  Methodist 
societies  embrace,  perhaps,  within  their  borders,  the 
most  numerous  and  influential  congregations  of  any 
Church  organization.  Yet,  while  many  of  the  re- 
ligious opinions  of  John  Wesley  are  still  cherished 
there  in  all  their  vitality  and  authority,  it  is  believed 
that  his  views  on  the  great  question  of  Slavery  are 
not  fully  appreciated,  if  even  they  are  generally 
known. 

The  abridgment  now  presented  of  his  essay  on  this 
important  subject  may  therefore  prove  instructive  and 


70  INTRODUCTION. 

suggestive  to  the  candid  inquirer,  whatever  his  re- 
ligious or  political  opinions  may  be. 

The  portions  of  the  treatise  omitted,  relate  chiefly 
to  the  horrors  of  the  Africa-n  slave-trade ;  it  seeming 
hardly  necessary  to  republish  them  at  this  day,  when, 
by  the  universal  consent  of  Christendom,  that  infa- 
mous pursuit  is  outlawed  and  punished  as  piracy  on 
the  high  seas.  Such  parts,  however,  have  been  re- 
tained as  appear  equally  to  apply  to  that  great  system 
of  internal  traffic  in  human  beings,  still  prevailing 
so  extensively  throughout  the  Southern  States  of  our 
Union,  and  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  darkest 
feature  of  American  Slavery. 


THOUGHTS  UPON  SLAVERY. 


1.  BY  Slavery  I  mean   domestic  slavery,  or  that 
of  a  servant  to   a  master.     A  late  ingenious  writer 
well    observes,    "  The    variety   of    forms   in   which 
slavery  appears,  makes  it  almost  impossible  to  con- 
vey a  just  notion  of  it  by  way  of  definition.     There 
are  however  certain   properties  which   have  accom- 
panied slavery  in  most  places,  whereby  it  is  easily 
distinguished  from  that  mild  domestic  service  which 
obtains  in  our  own  country."* 

2.  Slavery  imports  an  obligation  of  perpetual  ser- 
vice, an   obligation  which  only  the  consent  of  the 
master  can  dissolve.     Neither,  in  some  countries,  can 
the  master  himself  dissolve  it  without  the  consent 
of  judges  appointed  by  law.     It  generally  gives  the 
master    an   arbitrary   power   of   any   correction   not 
affecting  life    or   limb.     Sometimes  even  these  are 
exposed  to  his  will,  or  protected  only  by  a  fine  or 
some   slight   punishment,  too   inconsiderable  to  re- 
strain a  master  of  a  harsh  temper.      It  creates  an 


*  See  Mr.  Hargrave's  plea  for  Somerset  the  negro. 

71 


72  JOHN    WESLEY'S 

incapacity  of  acquiring  any  thing,  except  for  the 
master's  benefit.  It  allows  the  master  to  alienate 
the  slave  in  the  same  manner  as  his  cows  and 
horses.  Lastly,  it  descends  in  its  full  extent  from 
parent  to  child,  even  to  the  latest  generation. 

3.  The  beginning  of  this  may  be  dated  from  the 
remotest   period  of  which  we  have  an  account  in 
history.     It  commenced  in  the  barbarous   state  of 
society,  and  in  process  of  time  spread  into  all  nations. 
It    prevailed    particularly    among    the    Jews,    the 
Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the  ancient  Germans;  and 
was  transmitted  by  them  to  the  various  kingdoms 
and    states   which   arose   out   of   the   ruins   of  the 
Roman  empire.     But  after  Christianity  prevailed,  it 
gradually  fell   into   decline   in  almost   all   parts  of 
Europe.     This  great  change  began  in  Spain,  about 
the   end   of   the  eighth   century,   and  was    become 
general  in  most  other  kingdoms  of  Europe  before  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth. 

4.  From  this  time  slavery  was  nearly  extinct  till 
the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
the  discovery  of  America  and  of  the  western  and 
eastern    coasts  of  Africa    gave    occasion  to  the  re- 
vival of  it.     It  took  its  rise  from  the  Portuguese, 
who,  to  supply  the  Spaniards  with  men  to  cultivate 
their  new  possessions  in  America,  procured  negroes 
from  Africa,  whom  they  sold  for  slaves  to  the  Ame- 
rican   Spaniards.      This   began    in   the    year  1508, 
when   they   imported    the   first    negroes    into    His- 
paniola.      In   1540,  Charles   the  Fifth,   then   King 


THOUGHTS    UPON     SLAVERY.  73 

of  Spain,  determined  to  put  an  end  to  negro-slavery, 
— giving  positive  orders  that  all  the  negro  slaves  in 
the  Spanish  dominions  should  be  set  free.  And 
this  was  accordingly  done  by  Lagasca,  whom  he 
sent  and  empowered  to  free  them  all,  on  condition 
of  continuing  to  labor  for  their  masters.  But 
soon  after  Lagasca  returned  to  Spain  slavery  re- 
turned and  flourished  as  before.  Afterwards  other 
nations,  as  they  acquired  possessions  in  America, 
followed  the  examples  of  the  Spaniards,  and  slavery 
has  now  taken  deep  root  in  most  of  our  American 
colonies. 

II.  Such  is  the  nature  of  slavery;  such  the  be- 
ginning of  negro-slavery  in  America.  But  some 
may  desire  to  know  what  kind  of  a  country  it  is 
from  which  the  negroes  are  brought;  what  sort 
of  men,  of  what  temper  and  behavior  are  they  in 
their  own  country;  and  in  what  manner  they 
are  generally  procured,  carried  to,  and  treated  in 
America  ? 

1.  And,    first:    What    kind    of    country   is   tha* 
from  whence  they  are  brought  ?      Is  it  so  remark- 
ably horrid,  dreary,  and  barren  that  it  is  a  kindness 
to  deliver  them  out  of  it?     I  believe  many  have  ap- 
prehended  so.      But  it  is  an  entire  mistake,  if  we 
may  give    credit   to    those    who   have .  lived    many 
years  therein,  and    could   have    no  motive  to   mis- 
represent it. 

2.  That  part  of    Africa  whence  the  negroes  are 

7 


74  JOHN    WESLEY'S 

brought,  commonly  known  by  the  name  of  Guinea, 
extends  along  the  coast,  in  the  whole,  between  three 
and  four  thousand  miles.  From  the  river  Senegal 
(seventeen  degrees  north  of  the  line)  to  Cape  Sierra 
Leona  it  contains  seven  hundred  miles.  Thence  it 
runs  eastward  about  fifteen  hundred  miles,  including 
the  Grain  Coast,  the  Ivory  Coast,  the  Gold  Coast, 
and  the  Slave  Coast,  with  the  large  kingdom  of 
Benin.  From  thence  it  runs  southward  about 
twelve  hundred  miles,  and  contains  the  kingdoms  of 
Congo  and  Angola. 

3.  Concerning  the  first,  the  Senegal  Coast,  Mons. 
Brue,  who  lived  there  sixteen  years,  after  describing 
its  fruitfulness  near  the  sea,  says,  "  The  farther  you 
go  from  the  sea  the  more  fruitful  and  well-improved 
is  the  country,  abounding  in  pulse,  Indian  corn,  and 
various  fruits.     Here  are  vast  meadows,  which  feed 
large   herds   of    great   and    small   cattle;    and   the 
villages,  which  lie  thick,  show  the  country  is  well 
peopled."     And  again  :  "  I  was  surprised  to  see  the 
land   so   well  cultivated :    scarce   a   spot   lay  unim- 
proved ;  the  lowlands,  divided  by  small  canals,  were 
all    sowed   with    rice ;    the    higher    grounds   were 
planted  with  Indian  corn,  and  peas  of  different  sorts. 
Their   beef  is   excellent;    poultry  plenty   and  very 
cheap,  as  are  all  the  necessaries  of  life." 

4.  As  to  the  Grain  and    Ivory  Coast,  we  learn, 
from  eye-witnesses,  that  the  soil  is  in  general  fertile, 
producing  abundance  of  rice  and  roots.     Indigo  and 
cotton  thrive  without  cultivation.     Fish  is  in  great 


THOUGHTS  UPON  SLAVERY.      75 

plenty ;  the  flocks  and  herds  are  numerous,  and  the 
trees  loaded  with  fruit. 

5.  The  Gold  Coast  and  Slave  Coast,  all  who  have 
seen  it  agree,  is  exceeding  fruitful  and  pleasant,  pro- 
ducing vast  quantities  of  rice  and  other  grain,  plenty 
of  fruit   and  roots,  palm  wine  and  oil,  and  fish  in 
great  abundance,  with   much  tame  and  wild  cattle. 
The  very  same  account  is  given  us  of  the  soil  and 
produce    of    the   kingdoms   of  Benin,    Congo,    and 
Angola,  from  all  which  it  appears  that  Guinea  in 
general,    far   from   being   a   horrid,  dreary,    barren 
country,  is  one  of  the  most  fruitful  as  well  as  the 
most  pleasant  countries  in  the  known  world.     It  is 
said  indeed  to  be  unhealthy;  and  so  it  is  to  strangers, 
but  perfectly  healthy  to  the  native  inhabitants. 

6.  Such  is  the  country  from  which  the   negroes 
are  brought.     We  come  next  to  inquire  what  sort  of 
men  they  are,  of  what  temper  and  behavior,  not  in 
our  plantations,  but  in  their  native  country.     And 
here,  likewise,  the  surest  way  is  to  take  our  account 
from  eye  and  ear  witnesses.     Now,  those  who  have 
lived  in  the  Senegal  country  observe  it  is  inhabited 
by  three  nations,  the  Jaloss,  Fulis,  and  Mandingos. 
The  king  of  the  Jaloss  has  under  him  several  minis- 
ters, who  assist  in  the  exercise  of  justice.     The  chief 
justice  goes  in  circuit  through  all  his  dominions,  to 
hear  complaints   and   determine  controversies;    and 
the  viceroy  goes  with  him,  to  inspect  the  behavior 
of  the   alkadi,   or   governor   of  each  village.     The 
Fulis   are   a   numerous   people;    the   soil   of  their 


76  JOHN   WESLEY'S 

country  represented  as  rich,  affording  large  harvests, 
and  the  people  laborious  and  good  farmers.  Of  some 
of  these  Fuli  blacks,  who  dwelt  on  the  river  Gambia, 
William  Moore,  the  English  factor,  gives  a  very 
favorable  account.  He  says  they  are  governed  by 
their  chief  men,  who  rule  with  much  moderation. 
Few  of  them  will  drink  any  thing  stronger  than 
water,  being  strict  Mahometans.  The  government  is 
easy,  because  the  people  are  of  a  good  and  quiet  dis- 
position, and  so  well  instructed  in  what  is  right,  that 
a  man  who  wrongs  another  is  the  abomination  of  all. 
They  desire  no  more  land  than  they  use,  which  they 
cultivate  with  great  care  and  industry.  If  any  of 
them  are  known  to  be  made  slaves  by  the  white  men, 
they  all  join  to  redeem  them.  They  not  only  support 
all  that  are  old,  or  blind,  or  lame,  among  themselves, 
but  have  frequently  supplied  the  necessities  of  the 
Mandingos  when  they  were  distressed  by  famine. 

7.  The  Mandingos,  says  Mons.  Brue,  are  rigid 
Mahometans,  drinking  neither  wine  nor  brandy. 
They  are  industrious  and  laborious,  keeping  their 
ground  well  cultivated,  and  breeding  a  good  flock  of 
cattle.  Every  town  has  a  governor,  and  he  appoints 
the  labor  of  the  people.  The  men  work  the  ground 
designed  for  corn,  the  women  and  girls  the  rice- 
ground  -j  he  afterwards  divides  the  corn  and  rice 
among  them,  and  decides  all  quarrels,  if  any  arise. 
All  the  Mahometan  negroes  constantly  go  to  public 
prayers  thrice  a  day,  there  being  a  priest  in  every 
village,  who  regularly  calls  them  together.  Some 


THOUGHTS  UPON  SLAVERY.       77 

authors  say  it  is  surprising  to  see  the  attention  and 
reverence  which  they  observe  during  their  worship. 
These  three  nations  practise  several  trades :  they 
have  smiths,  saddlers,  potters,  and  weavers,  and  they 
are  very  ingenious  at  their  several  occupations  ;  their 
smiths  not  only  make  all  the  instruments  of  iron 
which  they  have  occasion  to  use,  but  likewise  work 
many  things  neatly  in  gold  and  silver.  It  is  chiefly 
the  women  and  children  who  weave  fine  cotton  cloth, 
which  they  dye  blue  and  black. 

8.  It  was  of  these  parts  of  Guinea  that  Mons. 
Adanson,  correspondent  of  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Sciences  at  Paris  from  1749  to  1753,  gives  the  fol- 
lowing account  both  as  to  the  country  and  people  : — 
"  Which  way  soever  I  turned  my  eyes,  I  beheld  a 
perfect  image  of  pure  nature  :  an  agreeable  solitude, 
bounded  on  every  side  by  a  charming  landscape ;  the 
rural  situation  of  cottages  in  the  midst  of  trees,  the 
ease  and  quietness  of  the  negroes  reclined  under  the 
shade  of  the  spreading  foliage,  with  the  simplicity  of 
their  dress  and  manners, — the  whole  revived  in  my 
mind  the  idea  of  our  first  parents,  and  I  seemed  to 
contemplate  the  world  in  its  primitive  state.  They 
are,  generally  speaking,  very  good-natured,  sociable, 
and  obliging.  I  was  not  a  little  pleased  with  my 
very  first  reception,  and  it  fully  convinced  me  that 
there  ought  to  be  a  considerable  abatement  made  in 
the  accounts  we  have  of  the  savage  character  of  the 
Africans."  He  adds,  "  It  is  amazing  that  an  illiterate 
people  should  reason  so  pertinently  concerning  the 
7* 


78  JOHN    WESLEY'S 

heavenly  bodies.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that,  with 
proper  instruments,  they  would  become  excellent 
astronomers/' 

9.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Grain  and  Ivory  Coast 
are   represented   by  those   that   deal  with    them   as 
sensible,  courteous,  and  the   fairest   traders  on  the 
coasts  of  Guinea.     They  rarely  drink  to  excess  ;  if 
any  do,   they  are  severely  punished,  by  the  king's 
order.     They  are  seldom   troubled   with  war :   if  a 
difference   happen  between  two  nations,   they  com- 
monly end  the  dispute  amicably. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Gold  and  Slave  Coast,  like- 
wise, when  they  are  not  artfully  incensed  against 
each  other,  live  in  great  unity  and  friendship,  being 
generally  well-tempered,  civil,  tractable,  and  ready  to 
help  any  that  need  it.  In  particular,  the  natives  of 
the  kingdom  of  Whidah  are  civil,  kind,  and  obliging 
to  strangers;  and  they  are  the  most  gentlemanlike 
of  all  the  negroes,  abounding  in  good  manners 
toward  each  other.  The  inferiors  pay  great  respect 
to  their  superiors :  so  wives  to  their  husbands,  chil- 
dren to  their  parents.  And  they  are  remarkably  in- 
dustrious; all  are  constantly  employed,  the  men  in 
agriculture,  the  women  in  spinning  and  weaving 
cotton. 

10.  The  Gold  and  Slave  Coasts  are  divided  into 
several  districts,  some  governed  by  kings,  others  by 
the  principal  men,  who  take  care  each  of  their  own 
town  or  village,   and   prevent   or   appease   tumults. 
They  punish  murder  and  adultery  severely,  very  fre- 


THOUGHTS  UPON  SLAVERY.      79 

quently  with  death.  Theft  and  robbery  are  punished 
by  a  fine  proportionable  to  the  goods  that  were  taken. 
All  the  natives  of  this  coast,  though  heathens,  be- 
lieve there  is  one  God,  the  Author  of  them  and  all 
things.  They  appear  likewise  to  have  a  confused 
apprehension  of  a  future  state;  and  accordingly 
every  town  and  village  has  a  place  of  public  worship. 
It  is  remarkable  that  they  have  no  beggars  among 
them,  such  is  the  care  of  the  chief  men  in  every  city, 
and  village  to  provide  some  easy  labor  even  for  the"" 
old  and  weak.  Some  are  employed  in  blowing  the 
smiths'  bellows,  others  in  pressing  palm-oil,  others  in 
grinding  of  colors.  If  they  are  too  weak  even  for 
this,  they  sell  provisions  in  the  market. 

11.  The  accounts  we  have  of  fhe  natives  of  the 
kingdom  of  Benin  is,  that  they  are  a  reasonable  and 
good-natured  people,  sincere  and  inoffensive,  and  do 
no  injustice  either  to  one  another  or  to  strangers. 
They  are  civil  and  courteous.  If  you  make  them  a 
present,  they  endeavor  to  repay  it  double.  And  if 
they  are  trusted  till  the  ship  returns  next  year,  they 
are  sure  honestly  to  pay  the  whole  debt.  Theft  is 
punished  among  them,  although  not  with  the  same 
severity  as  murder.  If  a  man  and  woman  of  any 
quality  are  taken  in  adultery,  they  are  certain  to  be 
put  to  death,  and  their  bodies  thrown  on  a  dunghill 
and  left  a  prey  to  wild  beasts.  They  are  punctually 
just  -and  honest  in  their  dealicgs,  and  are  also  very 
charitable, — the  king  and  the  great  lords  taking  care 
to  employ  all  that  are  capable  of  any  work;  and 


80  JOHN     WESLEY'S 

those  that  are  utterly  helpless  they  keep  for  God's 
sake  :  so  that  here  also  are  no  beggars.  The  inhabit- 
ants of  Congo  and  Angola  are  generally  a  quiet 
people.  They  discover  a  good  understanding,  and 
behave  in  a  friendly  manner  to  strangers,  being  of  a 
mild  temper  and  an  affable  carriage.  Upon  the 
whole,  therefore,  the  negroes  who  inhabit  the  coast 
of  Africa,  from  the  river  Senegal  to  the  southern 
bounds  of  Angola,  are  so  far  from  being  the  stupid, 
senseless,  brutish,  lazy  barbarians,  the  fierce,  cruel, 
perfidious  savages  they  have  been  described,  that,  on 
the  contrary,  they  are  represented,  by  them  who  had 
no  motive  to  flatter  them,  as  remarkably  sensible, 
considering  the  few  advantages  they  have  for  im- 
proving their  understanding;  as  very  industrious, 
perhaps  more  so  than  any  other  natives  of  so  warm  a 
climate  ;  as  fair,  just,  and  honest  in  their  dealings, 
unless  where  white  men  have  taught  them  to  be 
otherwise  ;  and  as  far  more  mild,  friendly,  and  kind 
to  strangers  than  any  of  our  forefathers  were.  Our 
forefathers  !  Where  shall  we  find  at  this  day,  among 
the  fair-faced  natives  of  Europe,  fl, 


practising  the  justice,  mercy,  and  truth  which  are 
related  of  these  poor  blackAfricans  ?  Suppose  the 
preceding  accounts  are  true,  (which  r*see_D.o_jea.so.n 
or  pretence  to  doubt  of,  )  and  we  may  leave  England 
and  France  to  seek  genuine  honesty  in  Benin,  Congo, 
or  Angola. 

III.  We  have  now  seen  what  kind  of  country  it  is 


THOUGHTS  UPON  SLAVERY.       81 

from  which  the  negroes  are  brought,  and  what  sort 
of  men  (even  white  men  being  the  judges)  they 
were  in  their  own  country.  Inquire  we,  thirdly,  in 
what  manner  are  they  generally  procured,  carried  to, 
and  treated  in  America  ? 

1.  First,    in   what    manner    are   they    procured  ? 
Part  of  them  by  fraud.     Captains  of  ships  from  time 
to  time  have  invited  negroes  to  come  on  board,  and 
then  carried  them  away.     But  far  more  have  been 
procured   by  force.     The    Christians   landing   upon 
their   coasts   seized   as   many  as    they  found,  men, 
women,    and    children,    and    transported    them    to 
America.    It  was  about  1551  that  the  English  began 
trading  to  Guinea,  at  first  for  gold  and  elephants' 
teeth,  but  soon  after  for  men.      In  1566,  Sir  John 
Hawkins  sailed  with  two  ships  to  Cape  Verd,  where 
he  sent  eighty  men  on  shore  to  catch  negroes ;  but, 
the  natives  flying,  they  fell  farther  down,  and  there 
set  the  men  on  shore  "  to  burn  their  towns  and  take 
the  inhabitants."    But  they  met  with  such  resistance 
that  they  had  seven  men  killed,  and  took  but  ten 
negroes.       So   they   went   still    farther   down,    till, 
having  taken  enough,  they  proceeded  to  the  West 
Indies  and  sold  them. 

2.  It  was  some  time  before  the  Europeans  found  a 
more  compendious  way  of  procuring  African  slaves, 
by  prevailing  upon  them  to  make  war  upon   each 
other  and  to  sell  their  prisoners.      Till  then  they 
seldom  had  any  wars,  but  were  in  general  quiet  and 
peaceable;    but  the  white   men   first   taught   them 


82  JOHN   WESLEY'S 

drunkenness  and  avarice,  and  then  hired  them  to 
sell  one  another.  Nay,  by  this  means  even  their 
kings  are  induced  to  sell  their  own  subjects :  so 
Mr.  Moore,  factor  of  the  African  Company  in 
1730,  informs  us: — "When  the  king  of  Barsalli 
wants  goods  or  brandy,  he  sends  to  the  English 
governor  at  James'  Fort,  who  immediately  sends  a 
sloop.  Against  the  time  it  arrives  he  plunders  some 
of  his  neighbors'  towns,  selling  the  people  for  the 
goods  he  wants.  At  other  times  he  falls  upon  one 
of  his  own  towns,  and  makes  bold  to  sell  his  own 
subjects."  So  Mons.  Brue  says  : — "  I  wrote  to  the 
king  (not  the  same)  if  he  had  a  sufficient  number  of 
slaves  I  would  treat  with  him.  He  seized  three 
hundred  of  his  own  people,  and  sent  word  he  was 
ready  to  deliver  them  for  the  goods."  He  adds, 
"  Some  of  the  natives  are  always  ready,  when  well 
paid,  to  surprise  and  carry  off  their  own  countrymen. 
They  come  at  night  without  noise,  and,  if  they  find 
any  lone  cottage,  surround  it  and  carry  off  all  the 
people."  Barbot,  another  French  factor,  says, 
"  Many  of  the  slaves  sold  by  the  negroes  are  prisoners 
of  war,  or  taken  in  the  incursions  they  make  into 
their  enemy's  territories  \  others  are  stolen.  Abun- 
dance of  little  blacks  of  both  sexes  are  stolen  away 
by  their  neighbors  when  found  abroad  on  the  road 
or  in  the  woods,  or  else  in  the  corn-fields,  at  the  time 
of  year  when  their  parents  keep  them  there  all  day 
to  scare  away  the  devouring  birds."  That  their  own 
parents  sell  them  is  utterly  false. 


THOUGHTS  UPON  SLAVERY.       83 

3.  To  set  the  manner  wherein  negroes  are  procured 
in  a  yet  stronger  light,  it  will  suffice  to  give  an  extract 
of  two  voyages  to  Guinea  on  this  account.     The  first 
is  taken  verbatim  from  the  original  manuscript  of  the 
surgeon's  journal : — 

"SESTRO,  Dec.  29,  1724.— No  trade  to-day, 
though  many  traders  come  on  board.  They  informed 
us  that  the  people  are  gone  to  war  within-land,  and 
will  bring  prisoners  enough  in  two  or  three  days,  in 
hopes  of  which  we  stay. 

"  The  30th. — No  trade  yet,  but  our  traders  came 
on  board  to-day  and  informed  us  the  people  had 
burnt  four  towns ;  so  that  to-morrow  we  expect  slaves 
off. 

"  The  31st. — Fair  weather,  but  no  trading  yet. 
We  see  each  night  towns  burning ;  but  we  hear  many 
of  the  Sestro  men  are  killed  by  the  inland  negroes, 
so  that  we  fear  this  war  will  be  unsuccessful. 

"  The  2d  of  January. — Last  night  we  saw  a  pro- 
digious fire  break  out  about  eleven  o'clock,  and  this 
morning  see  the  town  of  Sestro  burnt  down  to  the 
ground.  It  contained  some  hundred  houses  j  so  that 
we  find  their  enemies  are  too  hard  for  them  at  pre- 
sent, and  consequently  our  trade  is  spoiled  here. 
Therefore,  about  seven  o'clock  we  weighed  anchor,  to 
proceed  lower  down." 

4.  The  second  extract,  taken  from  the  journal  of 
a  surgeon  who  went  from  New  York  on  the  same 
trade,  is  as  follows  : — "  The  commander  of  the  vessel 
sent  to  acquaint  the  king  that  he  wanted  a  cargo  of 


84  JOHN    WESLEY'S 

slaves.  The  king  promised  to  furnish  him,  and  iu 
order  to  it  set  out,  designing  to  surprise  some  town 
and  make  all  the  people  prisoners.  Some  time  after 
the  king  sent  him  word  he  had  not  yet  met  with  the 
desired  success,  having  attempted  to  break  up  two 
towns,  but  having  been  twice  repulsed,  but  that  he 
still  hoped  to  procure  the  number  of  slaves.  In  this 
design  he  persisted  till  he  met  his  enemies  in  the 
field.  A  battle  was  fought,  which  lasted  three  days, 
and  the  engagement  was  so  bloody  that  four  thousand 
five  hundred  men  were  slain  upon  the  spot."  Such 
is  the  manner  wherein  the  negroes  are  procured ! 
Thus  the  Christians  preach  the  gospel  to  the 
heathens  ! 

5.  Thus  they  are  procured'  \  but  in  what  numbers 
and  in  what  manner  are  they  carried  to  America  ? 
Mr.  Anderson,  in  his  "  History  of  Trade  and  Com- 
merce," observes,   "  England  supplies  her  American 
colonies  with  negro   slaves  amounting  in  number  to 
about  an  hundred  thousand  every  year."     That  is, 
so  many  are  taken  on  board  our  ships,  but  at  least 
ten  thousand  of  them   die  on  the  voyage ;  about  a 
fourth  part  more  die  at  the  different  islands,  in  what 
is  called   the  seasoning :  so  that,  at  an  average,  in 
the  passage  and  seasoning  together,  thirty  thousand 
die, — that  is,   properly,  are  murdered.     0  earth,  0 
sea,  cover  not  thou  their  blood  I 

6.  When  they  are  brought  down  to  the  shore  in 
order  to  be  sold,  our  surgeons  thoroughly  examine 
them,  and  that  quite  naked,  women  and  men,  with- 


THOUGHTS     UPON     SLAVERY  85 

out  any  distinction.  Those  that  are  approved  are  set 
on  one  side.  In  the  mean  time  a  burning  iron,  with 
the  arms  or  name  of  the  company,  lies  in  the  fire, 
with  which  they  are  marked  on  the  breast.  Before 
they  are  put  into  the  ships,  their  masters  strip  them 
of  all  they  have  on  their  backs,  so  that  they  come 
on  board  stark  naked,  women  as  well  as  men.  It  is 
common  for  several  hundreds  of  them  to  be  put  on 
board  one  vessel,  where  they  are  stowed  together  in 
as  little  room  as  it  is  possible  for  them  to  be 
crowded.  It  is  easy  to  suppose  what  a  condition 
they  must  soon  be  in,  between  heat,  thirst,  and 
stench  of  various  kinds ;  so  that  it  is  no  wonder  so 
many  should  die  in  the  passage,  but  rather  that  any 
survive  it. 

7.  When  the  vessels  arrive  at  their  destined  port, 
the  negroes  are  again  exposed  naked  to  the  eyes  of 
all  that  flock  together,  and  the  examination  of  their 
purchasers ;  then  they  are  separated  to  the  planta- 
tions of  their  several  masters,  to  see  each  other  no 
more.  Here  you  may  see  mothers  hanging  over 
their  daughters,  bedewing  their  naked  breasts  with 
tears,  and  daughters  clinging  to  their  parents  till 
the  whipper  soon  obliges  them  to  part.  And  what 
can  be  more  wretched  than  the  condition  they  then 
enter  upon  !  banished  from  their  country,  from  their 
friends  and  relations  forever,  from  every  comfort  of 
life,  they  are  reduced  to  a  state  scarce  any  way  pre- 
ferable to  that  of  beasts  of  burden.  In  general  a 
few  roots,  not  of  the  nicest  kind,  usually  yams  or 


86  JOHN   WESLEY'S 

potatoes,  are  their  food,  and  two  rags,  that  neither 
screen  them  from  the  heat  of  the  day  nor  the  cold  of 
the  night,  their  covering.  Their  sleep  is  very  short, 
their  labor  continual,  and  frequently  above  their 
strength,  so  that  death  sets  many  of  them  at  liberty 
before  they  have  lived  out  half  their  days.  The 
time  they  work  in  the  West  Indies  is  from  daybreak 
to  noon,  and  from  two  o'clock  till  dark,  during  which 
time  they  are  attended  by  overseers,  who,  if  they 
think  them  dilatory,  or  think  any  thing  not  so  well 
done  as  it  should  be,  whip  them  most  unmercifully, 
so  that  you  may  see  their  bodies  long  after  wealed 
and  scarred,  usually  from  the  shoulders  to  the  waist. 
And  before  they  are  suffered  to  go  to  their  quarters 
they  have  commonly  something  to  do,  as  collecting 
herbage  for  the  horses  or  gathering  fuel  for  the 
boilers,  so  that  it  is  often  past  twelve  before  they 
can  get  home ;  hence,  if  their  food  was  not  prepared 
they  are  sometimes  called  to  labor  again  before 
they  can  satisfy  their  hunger.  And  no  excuse  will 
avail :  if  they  are  not  in  the  field  immediately,  they 
must  expect  to  feel  the  lash.  Did  the  Creator  intend 
that  the  noblest  creatures  in  the  visible  world  should 
live  such  a  life  as  this  ? 

*     "Are  these* thy  glorious  works,  Parent  of  Good?" 


IV. — 1.  This  is  the  plain,  unaggravated  matter  of 
fact.  Such  is  the  manner  wherein  our  African 
slaves  are  procured,  such  the  manner  wherein  they 


THOUGHTS     UPON     SLAVERY.  87 

are  removed  from  their  native  land,  and  wherein  they 
are  treated  in  our  plantations.  I  would  now  inquire 
whether  these  things  can  be  defended  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  even  heathen  honesty ; — whether  they  can 
be  reconciled  (setting  the  Bible  out  of  the  question) 
with  any  degree  of  either  justice  or  mercy. 

2.  The  grand  plea  is,  "They  are  authorized  by 
law."  But  can  law,  human  law,  change  the  nature 
of  things  ?  Can  it  turn  darkness  into  light,  or  evil 
into  good  ?  By  no  means.  Notwithstanding  ten 
thousand  laws,  right  is  right  and  wrong  is  wrong 
still ;  there  must  still  remain  an  essential  difference 
between  justice  and  injustice,  cruelty  and  mercy  :  so 
that  still  I  ask,  "Who  can  reconcile  this  treatment  of 
the  negroes,  first  and  last,  with  either  mercy  or  jus- 
tice ? 

Where  is  the  justice  of  inflicting  the  severest  evils 
on  those  that  have  done  us  no  wrong  ?  of  depriving 
those  that  never  injured  us,  in  word  or  deed,  of  every 
comfort  of  life  ?  of  tearing  them  from  their  native 
country,  and  depriving  them  of  liberty  itself, — to 
which  an  Angolan  has  the  same  natural  right  as  an 
Englishman,  and  on  which  he  sets  as  high  a  value  ? 
Yea,  where  is  the  justice  of  taking  away  the  lives  of 
innocent,  inoffensive  men  ?  murdering  thousands 
of  them  in  their  own  land,  by  the  hands  of  their  own 
countrymen,  many  thousands  year  after  year  on 
shipboard,  and  then  casting  them  like  dung  into  the 
sea,  and  tens  of  thousands  in  that  cruel  slavery  to 
which  they  are  so  unjustly  reduced  ? 


88  JOHN    WESLEY'S 

3.  That  slave-holding  is  utterly  inconsistent  with 
rnercy  is  almost  too  plain  to  need  a  proof.     Indeed, 
it  is  said,  "  That  these  negroes,  being  prisoners  of 
war,  our  captains  and  factors  buy  them  merely  to  save 
them   from  being   put   to   death.     And  is  not  this 
mercy  ?"     I  answer,  1,  Did  Sir  John  Hawkins  and 
many  others   seize  upon  men,  women,  and  children, 
who  were   at  peace  in  their  own  fields  or   houses, 
merely  to  save  them  from  death  ?     2.  "Was  it  to  save 
them  from  death  that  they  knocked  out  the  brains  of 
those   they  could  not   bring  away?     3.  Who  occa- 
sioned and  fomented  those  wars  wherein  these  poor 
creatures  were  taken  prisoners  ?     Who  excited  them, 
by  money,  by  drink,  by  every  possible  means,  to  fall 
upon  one  another  ?     Was  it  not  themselves  ?     They 
know  in  their  own  conscience  it  was,  if  they  have  any 
conscience  left.     But,  4,  To  bring  the  matter  to  a 
short  issue,  can  they  say  before  God  that  they  never 
took  a  single  voyage  or  bought  a  single  negro  from 
this  motive  ?     They  cannot :  they  well  know  to  get 
money,  not  to  save  lives,  was   the  whole  and  sole 
spring  of  their  motions. 

4.  But  if  this  manner  of  procuring  and  treating 
negroes  is  not  consistent  either  with  mercy  or  justice, 
yet  there  is  a  plea  for  it  which  every  man  of  business 
will  acknowledge  to  be  quite  sufficient.     Fifty  years 
ago,  one  meeting  an  eminent  statesman  in  the  lobby 
of  the  House   of  Commons   said,  "  You  have  been 
long  talking  about  justice  and  equity  :  pray,  which  is 
this  bill,   equity  or  justice  ?"      He  answered,  very 


THOUGHTS     UPON     SLAVERY.  89 

short  and  plain,  "It  is  necessity."  Here  also  the 
slave-holder  fixes  his  foot ;  here  he  rests  the  strength 
of  his  cause.  "  If  it  is  not  quite  right,  yet  it  must 
be  so;  there  is  an  absolute  necessity  for  it;  it  is 
necessary  we  should  procure  slaves,  and  when  we 
have  procured  them  it  is  necessary  to  use  them  with 
severity,  considering  their  stupidity,  stubbornness, 
and  wickedness." 

I  answer,  You  stumble  at  the  threshold.  I  deny 
that  villany  is  ever  necessary.  It  is  impossible  that 
it  should  ever  be  necessary  for  any  reasonable  creature 
to  violate  all  the  laws  of  justice,  mercv,  and  truth. 
No  circumstances  can  make  it  necessary  for  a  man  to 
burst  in  sunder  all  the  ties  of  humanity.  It  can 
never  be  necessary  for  a  rational  being  to  sink  him- 
self below  a  brute.  A  man  can  be  under  no  necessity 
of  degrading  himself  into  a  wolf.  The  absurdity  of 
the  supposition  is  so  glaring  that  one  would  wonder 
any  one  can  help  seeing  it. 

5.  This  in  general.  But,  to  be  more  particular, 
I  ask,  first,  what  is  necessary  ?  and,  secondly,  to  what 
end  ?  It  may  be  answered,  "  The  whole  method  now 
used  by  the  original  purchasers  of  negroes  is  neces- 
sary to  the  furnishing  our  colonies  yearly  with  a 
hundred  thousand  slaves."  I  grant  this  is  necessary 
to  that  end.  But  how  is  that  end  necessary  ?  How 
will  you  prove  it  necessary  that  one  hundred,  that 
one,  of  those  slaves  should  be  procured  ?  "Why,  it 
is  necessary  to  my  gaining  a  hundred  thousand 
pounds."  Perhaps  so;  but  how  is  this  necessary? 


90  jo  UN    WESLEY'S 

Xt  is  very  possible  you  might  be  both  a  better  and  a 
happier  man  if  you  had  not  a  quarter  of  it.  I  deny 
that  your  gaining  one  thousand  is  necessary  either  to 
your  present  or  eternal  happiness.  "  But,  however, 
you  must  allow  these  slaves  are  necessary  for  the  cul- 
tivation of  our  islands,  inasmuch  as  white  men  are 
not  able  to  labor  in  hot  climates."  I  answer,  first, 
it  were  better  that  all  those  islands  should  remain 
uncultivated  forever,  yea,  it  were  more  desirable  that 
they  were  altogether  sunk  in  the  depth  of  the  sea, 
than  that  they  should  be  cultivated  at  so  high  a 
price  as  the  violation  of  justice,  mercy,  and  truth. 
But,  secondly,  the  supposition  on  which  you  ground 
your  argument  is  false ;  for  white  men,  even  English- 
men, are  well  able  to  labor  in  hot  climates,  provided 
they  are  temperate  both  in  meat  and  drink,  and  that 
they  inure  themselves  to  it  by  degrees.  I  speak  no 
more  than  I  know  by  experience.  It  appears  from 
the  thermometer  that  the  summer  heat  in  Georgia  is 
frequently  equal  to  that  in  Barbadoes,  yea,  to  that 
under  the  .line;  and  yet  I  and  my  family,  eight  in 
number,  did  employ  all  our  spare  time  there  in  fell- 
ing of  trees  and  clearing  of  ground, — as  hard  labor 
as  any  negro  need  be  employed  in.  The  German 
family,  likewise,  forty  in  number,  were  employed  in 
all  manner  of  labor;  and  this  was  so  far  from  im- 
pairing our  health,  that  we  all  continued  perfectly 
well,  while  the  idle  ones  all  round  about  us  were 
swept  away  as  with  a  pestilence.  It  is  not  true, 
therefore,  that  white  men  are  not  able  to  labor,  even 


THOUGHTS     UPON     SLAVERY.  91 

in  hot  climates,  full  as  well  as  black.  But,  if  they 
were  not,  it  would  be  better  that  none  should  labor 
there,  that  the  work  should  be  left  undone,  than  that 
myriads  of  innocent  men  should  be  murdered,  and 
myriads  more  dragged  into  the  basest  slavery. 

6.  "  But  the  furnishing  us  with  slaves  is  necessary 
for  the  trade,  and  wealth,  and  glory  of  our  nation." 
Here  are  several  mistakes;  for,  first,  wealth  is  not 
necessary  to  the  glory  of  any  nation,  but  wisdom, 
virtue,  justice,  mercy,  generosity,  public  spirit,  love 
of  our  country  :  these  are  necessary  to  the  real  glory 
of  a  nation,  but  abundance  of  wealth  is  not.     Men  of 
understanding  allow  that  the  glory  of  England  was 
full  as  high  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  as  it  is  now, 
although  our  riches  and  trade  were  then  as  much 
smaller  as  our  virtue  was  greater.     But,  secondly,  it 
is  not  clear  that  we  should  have  either  less  money  or 
trade   (only  less   of  that   detestable   trade   of  man- 
stealing)  if  there  was  not  a  negro  in  all  our  islands, 
or  in  all  English  America.     It  is  demonstrable  white 
men,  inured  to  it  by  degrees,   can  work-  as  well  as 
them,  and  they  would  do  it  were  negroes  out  of  the 
way,  and  proper  encouragement  given  them.     How- 
ever, thirdly,  I  come  back  to  the  same  point :  better 
no  trade  than  trade  procured   by  villany;   it  is  far 
better  to  have  no  wealth  than  to  gain  wealth  at  the 
expense  of  virtue.     Better  is  honest  poverty  than  all 
the  riches  bought  by  the  tears,  and  sweat,  and  blood 
of  our  fellow-creatures. 

7.  "However  this  be,   it  is   necessary  when  we 


»Z  JOHN     WESLEY'S 

have  slaves  to  use  them  with  severity."  I  pray,  to 
what  end  is  this  usage  necessary  ?  "  Why,  to  pre- 
vent their  running  away,  and  to  keep  them  constantly 
to  their  labor,  that  they  may  not  idle  away  their 
time,  so  miserably  stupid  is  this  race  of  men,  yea,  so 
stubborn  and  so  wicked -"  Allowing  them  to  be  as 
stupid  as  you  say,  to  whom  is  that  stupidity  owing  ? 
[  Without  question  it  lies  altogether  at  the  door  of 
\  their  inhuman  masters,  who  give  them  no  means,  no 
opportunity  of  improving  their  understanding,  and, 
indeed,  leave  them  no  motive,  either  from  hope  or 
fear,  to  attempt  any  such  thing.  They  were  noway 
remarkable  for  stupidity  while  they  remained  in  their 
own  country.  The  inhabitants  of  Africa,  where  they 
have  equal  motives  and  equal  means  of  improvement, 
are  not  inferior  to  the  inhabitants  of  Europe;  to  some 
of  them  they  are  greatly  superior.  Impartially  sur- 
^vey,  in  their  own  country,  the  natives  of  Benin  and 
the  natives  of  Lapland.  Compare  (setting  prejudice 
aside)  the  Samoeids  and  the  Angolans;  and  on 
which  side  does  the  advantage  lie  in  point  of  under- 
standing? Certainly  the  African  is  in  no  respect 
inferior  to  the  European.  Their  stupidity,  therefore, 
in  our  plantations  is  not  natural,  otherwise  than  it  is 
the  natural  effect  of  their  condition  :  consequently,  it 
is  not  their  fault,  but  yours ;  you  must  answer  for  it 
before  God  and  man. 

8.  "  But  their  stupidity  is  not  the  only  reason  of 
our  treating  them  with  severity,  for  it  is  hard  to  say 
which  is  the  greatest,  this,  or  their  stubbornness  and 


THOUGHTS     UPOfl     SLAVER?.  93 

wickedness."  It  may  be  so;  but  do  not  these  as 
well  as  the  other  lie  at  your  door  ?  Are  not  stub- 
bornness, cunning,  pilfering,  and  divers  other  vices, 
the  natural,  necessary  fruits  of  slavery  ?  Is  not  this 
an  observation  which  has  been  made  in  every  age 
and  nation  ?  And  what  means  have  you  used  to  re- 
move this  stubbornness  ?  Have  you  tried  what  mild- 
ness and  gentleness  would  do  ?  I  knew  one  that 
did, — that  had  prudence  and  patience  to  make  the 
experiment, — Mr.  Hugh.  Bryan,  who  then  lived  on 
the  borders  of  South  Carolina.  And  what  was  the 
effect  ?  Why,  that  all  his  negroes  (and  he  had  no 
small  number  of  them)  loved  and  reverenced  him  as 
a  father,  and  cheerfully  obeyed  him  out  of  love  :  yea, 
ihev  were  more  afraid  of  a  frown  from  him  than  of 
.many  blows  from  an  overseer.  And  what  pains  Lave 
you  taken,  what  method  have  you  used,  to  reclaim 
them  from  their  wickedness  ?  Have  you  carefully 
taught  them  "  that  there  is  a  God,  a  wise,  powerful, 
merciful  Being,  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  heaven 
and  earth  ?  that  he  has  appointed  a  day  wherein  he 
will  judge  the  world,  will  take  an  account  of  a11  our 
thoughts,  words,  and  actions  ?  that  in  that  day  he 
will  reward  every  child  of  man  according  to  his 
works"  ?  that  "  then  the  righteous  shall  inherit  the 
kingdom  prepared  for  them  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  and  the  wicked  shall  be  cast  into  everlast- 
ing fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels"  ?  If 
you  have  not  done  this,  if  you  have  taken  no  pains  or 
thought  about  the  matter,  can  you  wonder  at  their 


94  JOHN    WESLEY'S 

wickedness  ?  You  first  acted  the  villain  in  making 
them  slaves,  whether  you  stole  them  or  bought  them. 
You  kept  them  stupid  and  wicked  by  cutting  them 
off  from  all  opportunities  of  improving  either  in 
knowledge  or  virtue ;  and  now  you  assign  their  want 
of  wisdom  and  goodness  as  the  reason  for  using  them 
worse  than  brute  beasts  ! 

V. — 1.  It  remains  only  to  make  a  little  application 
of  the  preceding  observations.  But  to  whom  should 
that  application  be  made  ?  That  may  bear  a  question. 
Should  we  address  ourselves  to  the  public  at  large  ? 
What  effect  can  this  have  ?  It  may  inflame  the 
world  against  the  guilty,  but  is  not  likely  to  remove 
that  guilt.  Should  we  appeal  to  the  nation  in 
general?  This  also  is  striking  wide,  and  is  never 
likely  to  procure  any  redress  for  the  sore  evil  we 
complain  of.  As  little  would  it,  in  all  probability, 
avail  to  apply  to  Parliament.  So  many  things  which 
seem  of  greater  importance  lie  before  them,  that  they 
are  not  likely  to  attend  to  this.  I  therefore  add  a  few 
words  to  those  who  are  more  immediately  concerned, 
whether  merchants  or  planters. 

2.  May  I  speak  plainly  to  you  ?  I  must.  Love 
constrains  me, — love  to  you  as  well  as  to  those  you 
are  concerned  with 

Is  there  a  God  ?  You  know  there  is.  Is  he  a  just 
God  ?  Then  there  must  be  a  state  of  retribution, — a 
state  wherein  the  just  God  will  reward  every  man 
according  to  his  works.  Then  what  reward  will  he 


THOUGHTS     UPON     SLAVERY.  95 

render  to  you  ?  Oh,  think  betimes,  before  you  drop 
into  eternity  !  Think  now  :  He  shall  have  judgment 
without  mercy  that  showed  no  mercy. 

Are  you  a  man  ?  Then  you  should  have  a  human 
heart.  But  have  you  indeed  ?  What  is  your  heart 
made  of?  Is  there  no  such  principle  as  compassion 
there  ?  Do  you  never  feel  another's  pain  ?  Have 
you  no  sympathy,  no  sense  of  human  woe,  no  pity  for 
the  miserable  ?  When  you  saw  the  flowing  eyes,  the 
heaving  breasts,  or  the  bleeding  sides  and  tortured 
limbs  of  your  fellow-creatures,  was  you  a  stone  or  a 
brute  ?  Did  you  look  upon  them  with  the  eyes  of  a 
tiger  ?  When  you  squeezed  the  agonizing  creatures 
down  in  the  ship,  or  when  you  threw  their  poor 
mangled  remains  into  the  sea,  had  you  no  relenting  ? 
Did  not  one  tear  drop  from  your  eye,  one  sigh  escape 
from  your  breast  ?  Do  you  feel  no  relenting  now  ? 
If  you  do  not,  you  must  go  on  till  the  measure  of 
your  iniquities  is  full.  Then  will  the  great  God  deal 
with  you  as  you  have  dealt  with  them,  and  require  all 
their  blood  at  your  hands ;  and  at  that  day  it  shall 
be  more  tolerable  for  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  than  for 
you  !  But  if  your  heart  does  relent,  though  in  a 
small  degree,  know  it  is  a  call  from  the  God  of  love ; 
and  to-day,  if  you  hear  his  voice,  harden  not  your 
heart;  to-day  resolve,  God  being  your  helper,  to 
escape  for  your  life.  Regard  not  money.  All  that 
a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life.  Whatever  you 
lose,  lose  not  your  soul ;  nothing  can  countervail  that 


96  JOHN    WESLEY'S 

loss.     Immediately   quit   the   horrid   trade;    at    all 
events,  be  an  honest  man. 

3.  This  equally  concerns  every  merchant  who  is 
engaged  in  the  slave-trade.     It  is  you  that 'induce 
the   African  villain  to  sell   his  countrymen,  and,  in 
order  thereto,  to  steal,  rob,  murder  men,  women,  and 
children  without  number,  by  enabling  the  English 
villain  to  pay  him  for  so  doing,  whom  you  overpay 
for  his  execrable  labor.      It  is  your   money  that  is 
the  spring  of  all,  that  empowers  him  to  go  on,  so  that 
whatever  he  or  the  African  does  in  this  matter  is  all 
your  act  and  deed.     And  is  your  conscience  quite 
reconciled  to  this  ?  does  it  never  reproach  you  at  all  ? 
Has  gold  entirely  blinded  your  eyes  and   stupefied 
your  heart  ?     Can  you  see,  can  you  feel,  no   harm 
therein?     Is  it  doing  as   you  would   be  done   to? 
Make  the  case  your  own.     "  Master,"  said  a  slave  at 
Liverpool  to  the  merchant  that  o.wned  him,  "  what 
if  some  of  my  countrymen  were  to  come  here  and 
take    away    my   mistress,   and    Master   Tommy    and 
Master  Billy,  and   carry  them   into  our  country  and 
make  them  slaves  ?  how  would  you  like  it  ?"     His 
answer  was  worthy  of  a  man  :  "  I  will  never  buy  a 
slave  more  while  I  live."     Oh,  let  his  resolution  be 
yours;  have  no  more  any  part  in  this  detestable  busi- 
ness ;  instantly  leave  it  to  those  unfeeling  wretches 
"  who  laugh  at  human  nature  and  compassion."     Be 
you  a  man, — not  a  wolf,  a  devourer  of  the  human 
species.     Be  merciful,  that  you  may  obtain  mercy. 

4.  And   this   equally    concerns   every   gentleman 


THOUGHTS     UPON     SLAVERY.  97 

that  has  an  estate  in  our  American  plantations,  yea, 
all  slave-holders  of  whatever  rank  and  degree,  seeing 
men-buyers  are  exactly  on  a  level  with  men-stealers. 
Indeed,  you  say,  "  I  pay  honestly  for  my  goods,  and 
I  am  not  concerned  to  know  how  they  are  come  by/' 
Nay,  hut  you  are ;  you  are  deeply  concerned  to  know 
they  are  honestly  come  by,  otherwise  you  are  par- 
taker with  a  thief,  and  are  not  a  jot  honester  than 
him.  But  you  know  they  are  not  honestly  come  by; 
you  know  they  are  procured  by  means  nothing  near 
so  honest  as  picking  of  pockets,  housebreaking,  or 
robbery  upon  the  highway.  You  know  they  are  pro- 
cured by  a  deliberate  series  of  more  complicated 
villany,  of  fraud,  robbery,  and  murder,  than  was  ever 
practised  either  by  Mahometans  or  Pagans ;  in  par- 
ticular by  murders  of  all  kinds,  by  the  blood  of  the 
innocent  poured  upon  the  ground  like  water.  Now, 
it  is  your  money  that  pays  the  merchant,  and  through 
him  the  captain  and  the  African  butchers.  You, 
therefore,  are  guilty,  yea,  principally  guilty,  of  all 
these  frauds,  robberies,  and  murders.  You  are  the 
spring  that  puts  all  the  rest  in  motion  :  they  would 
not  stir  a  step  without  you;  therefore  the  blood  of 
all  these  wretches  who  die  before  their  time,  whether 
in  this  country  or  elsewhere,  lies  upon  your  head. 
The  blood  of  thy  brother  (for,  whether  thou  wilt 
believe  it  or  no,  such  he  is  in  the  sight  of  Him  that 
made  him)  crieth  against  thee  from  the  earth,  from 
the  ship,  and  from  the  waters.  Oh,  whatever  it  costs, 
put  a  stop  to  its  cry  before  it  be  too  late.  Instantly. 


98  JOHN   WESLEY'S 

at  any  price,  were  it  the  half  of  your  goods,  deliver 
thyself  from  blood-guiltiness.  Thy  hands,  thy  bed, 
thy  furniture,  thy  house,  thy  lands,  are  at  present 
stained  with  blood.  Surely  it  is  enough  :  accumu- 
late no  more  guilt;  spill  no  more  the  blood  of  the 
innocent ;  do  not  hire  another  to  shed  blood ;  do  not 
pay  him  for  doing  it.  Whether  you  are  a  Christian 
or  no,  show  yourself  a  man;  be  not  more  savage 
than  a  lion  or  a  bear. 

5.  Perhaps  you  will  say,  "  I  do  not  buy  any 
negroes :  I  only  use  those  left  me  by  my  father." 
So  far  so  well ;  but  is  it  enough  to  satisfy  your  own 
conscience?  Had  your  father,  have  you,  has  any 
man  living,  a  right  to  use  another  as  a  slave  ?  It 
cannot  be,  even  setting  revelation  aside ;  it  cannot 
be  that  either  war  or  contract  can  give  any  man  such 
a  property  in  another  as  he  has  in  his  sheep  and 
oxen ;  much  less  is  it  possible  that  any  child  of  man 
should  ever  be  born  a  slave.  Liberty  is  the  right  of 
every  human  creature  as  soon  as  he  breathes  the 
vital  air ;  and  no  human  law  can  deprive  him  ot  that 
right,  which  he  derives  from  the  law  of  nature. 

If,  therefore,  you  have  any  regard  to  justice,  (to  say 
nothing  of  mercy,  nor  of  the  revealed  law  of  God,) 
render  unto  all  their  due;  give  liberty  to  whom 
liberty  is  due,  that  is,  to  every  child  of  man,  to  every 
partaker  of  human  nature.  Let  none  serve  you  but 
by  his  own  act  and  deed,  by  his  own  voluntary 
choice.  Away  with  all  whips,  all  chains,  all  com- 
pulsion. Be  gentle  towards  all  men ;  and  see  that 


THOUGHTS    UPON     SLAVERY.  99 

you  invariably  do  unto  every  one  as  you  would  he 
should  do  unto  you. 

6.  0  thou  God  of  love,  thou  who  art  loving  to 
every  man,  and  whose  mercy  is  over  all  thy  works, 
thou  who  art  the  Father  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  and 
who  art  rich  in  mercy  unto  all,  thou  who  hast 
mingled  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  upon  earth,  have 
compassion  upon  these  outcasts  of  men  who  are 
trodden  down  as  dung  upon  the  earth !  Arise  and 
help  these  that  have  no  helper,  whose  blood  is  spilt 
upon  the  ground  like  water  !  Are  not  these  also  the 
work  of  thine  own  hands,  the  purchase  of  thy  Son's 
blood  ?  Stir  them  up  to  cry  unto  thee  in  the  land 
of  their  captivity,  and  let  their  complaint  come  up 
before  thee  ;  let  it  enter  into  thy  ears  !  Make  even 
those  that  lead  them  away  captive  to  pity  them,  and 
turn  their  captivity  as  the  rivers  in  the  south. 
Oh,  burst  thou  all  their  chains  in  sunder,  more  espe- 
cially the  chains  of  their  sins.  Thou  Saviour  of  all, 
make  them  free  that  they  may  be  free  indeed ! 


APPENDIX. 


CHARLES  WESLEY  also  was  deeply  concerned  for 
the  suffering  of  the  negroes  on  the  Southern  planta- 
tions, as  well  as  for  the  demoralizing  effect,  on  the 
white  population,  of  the  whole  system  of  Slavery. 
Under  date  of  July,  1736,  he  writes  from  South 
Carolina, — 

"  I  have  observed  much  and  heard  more  of  the 
cruelty  of  masters  towards  their  negroes ;  but  now  I 
received  an  authentic  account  of  some  horrid  instances 
thereof.  I  saw  myself  that  the  giving  a  slave  to  a 
child  of  its  own  age  to  tyrannize  over,  to  abuse  and 
beat  out  of  sport,  was  a  common  practice ;  nor  is  it 
strange  that,  being  thus  trained  up  in  cruelty,  they 
should  afterwards  arrive  at  such  a  perfection  in  it." — 
Whitehead's  Life  of  Wesley,  vol.  i.  p.  94. 

METHODIST  TESTIMONY. 

The  learned  Adam  Clarke,  author  of  a  voluminous 
commentary  on  the  Scriptures,  says, — 

"  Slave-dealers,  whether  those  who  carry  on  the 
traffic  in  human  flesh  and  blood,  or  those  who  steal 

100 


WESLEY   ON   SLAVERY.  101 

a  person  in  order  to  sell  him  into  bondage,  or  those 
who  buy  such  stolen  men  or  women,  no  matter  of 
what  color  or  what  country,  or  the  nations  who 
legalize  or  connive  at  such  traffic,— all  these  are 
men-stealers,  ajadjGod__classes  them  with  the  most 
flagitious  of  mortals." 

Under  the  superintendence  of  Dr.  Coke,  who 
was  appointed  by  John  Wesley  himself  as  the  first 
bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Churches  in  Ame- 
rica, the  following  remarkable  minute  was  adopted  by 
the  Conference  in  1784  : — 

"rjb!iyery  me'mBer"ln~~bu'f^Society  who  has  slaves 
in  those  States  where  the  law  will  admit  of  freeing 
them,  shall,  after  notice  given  him  by  the  preacher, 
set  them  free  within  twelve  months,  (except  in 
Virginia,  and  there  within  two  years,)  at  specified 
periods  according  to  age.  Every  person  concerne<L^_ , 
who  will  not  comply  wTIK  these  rules  shall  have  liberty 
to  withdraw  within  twelve  months  after  the  notice  is 
given,  otherwise  to  be  excluded.  No  person  holding; 
slaves  shall  in  future  be  admitted  into  the  Society 
until  he  previously  comply  with  these  rules  respect- 
ing Slavery/' 

These  regulations  were  severely  attacked  at  a  subse- 
quent Conference  held  in  Virginia,  and,  though  de- 
fended with  great  firmness  by  Dr.  Coke,  they  were 
suspended  a  year  afterwards. — Lee's  History  of  the 
Methodists. 

It  is  related  in  Dr.  Coke's  biography  that  his 
power  over  the  assembly  in  his  local  preaching  was 


102  APPENDIX   TO 

great;  and,  when  this  obnoxious  subject  was  omitted, 
he  was  caressed  and  received  with  veneration  and 
respect.  "But  on  other  occasions,  when  this  fatal 
chord  was  touched,  it  instantly  vibrated  discord 
throughout  the  congregation,  and  applause  gave 
place  to  execrations.  In  some  places  the  members 
of  the  Society  were  disgusted,  and  many  withdrew." 
Notwithstanding  his  high  official  position,  he  at 
times  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life  from  the  ven- 
geance of  the  mob. 

From  these  extracts  it  will  be  seen  that  the  testi- 
mony borne  by  John  Wesley  and  other  religious  men 
of  that  day,  while  more  fearless  and  uncompromising 
than  is  customary  in  our  own,  was  not  universally  ac- 
ceptable to  the  upholders  of  Slavery  or  the  communi- 
ties in  which  it  existed. 

xfS"~1797  the  Discipline  Contained  the  following 
paragraph  : — •»'  The  preachers  an4  other  members 
of  our  Society  are  requested  to  consider  the  subject 
of  negro-slavery  with  deep  attention,  and  that  they 
impart  to  the  ^grgneral  ConferenceT^through  the 
medium  of  the  pearly  (Jonierenc^or  otherwise,  any 
important  thoughts  on  {he  subject,  that  the  Con- 
ference may  have  full  light,  in  order  to  take  further 
steps  towards  eradicating  this  enormous  evil  from 
that  part  of  the  Church  of  God  with  which  they 
are  connected/' 

BAPTIST  TESTIMONY. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  General  Committee  of  the 


WESLEY   ON    SLAVERY.  103 

Baptists  of  Virginia  in  1789,  the  following  resolu- 
tion was  offered  by  Elder  John  Leland  and 
adop. 

l^at  Slaveryis  a  violent  deprivation 
of  thenghts  of  nature^  and^  inconsistent  with  re- 
publican government,  and  therefore  we  recommend 
it  to  our  brethren  to  make  use  of  every  measure  to 
extirpate  this  horrid  evil  frnm  tihp  land,  anfl  pray^ 
Almighty  God  that  our  honorable  Legislature  may 
have  it  in  their  power  to  proclaim  the  great  jubilee 
consistent  with  the  principles  of  good  policy/' 

EPISCOPAL  TESTIMONY. 

Bishop  Horsley  says,  "  Slavery  is  an  injustice  which 
reconsideration  of  policy  can  extenuate." 

Bishop  Porteus  says,  "The  Bible  classes  men- 
stealers,  or  slave-traders,  among  the  murderers  ^f 
fathers  and  mothers,  and  the  most  profane  criminals 


PRESBYTERIAN  TESTIMONY. 

From  a  resolution  denunciatory  of  Slavery,  unani- 
mously adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  1818,  we  make  the  follow- 
ing extract : — 

"We  consider  the  voluntary  enslaving  of  one 
part  of  the  human  race  by  another  as  a  gross  viola- 
tipJL_QjLthe  most  precious  and  sacred  rights  of  human 


nature,  as  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  God, 
which  requires  us  to  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves, 
and  as  totally  irreconcilable  with  the  spirit  and  prin- 


104  WESLEY    ON    SLAVERY. 

ciples  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  which  enjoins  that 
'all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  thatvmen  should  do 
to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them/  *  *  *  We  re- 
joice that  the  Church  to  which  we  belong  com- 
menced as  early  as  any  other  in  this  country  the 
good  work  of  endeavoring  to  put  an  end  to  slavery^ 
and  that  in  the  same  work  many  of  its  members 
have  ever  since  been  and  now  are  among  the  most 
active,  vigorous,  and  efficient  laborers.  *  *  *  We 
earnestly  exhort  them  to  continue,  and,  if  possible, 
to  increase  their  exertion  to  effect  the  total  abolition 
of  Slavery." 

A  committee  of  the  Synod  of  Kentucky,  in  an 
address  to  the  Presbyterians  of  that  State,  says, 
"  That  our  negroes  will  be  worse  ott  u  emancipated, 
is,  we  feel,  but  a  specious  pretext  for  lulling  our  own 
pangs  of  conscience  and  answering  the  arguments 
of  the  philanthropist.  None  of  us  believe  that  Grod 
has  so  created  a  whole  race  that  it  is  better  for  them 
to  remain  in  perpetual  bondage." 

BAYNAL. 

The  Abbe  Raynal  says,  "Jfa  who  supports  _Rla-_ 
very  is  the  enemy  of  the  human  race.  He  divides 
it  into  two  societies  of  legal  assassins ;  the  oppres- 
sors and  the  oppressed.  I  shall  not  be  afraid  to 
cite  to  the  tribunal  of  reason  and  justice  those 
governments  which  tolerate  this  cruelty,  or  which 
even  are  not  ashamed  to  make  it  the  basis  of  their 
power." 


GENEKAL  APPENDIX. 


GENERAL  APPENDIX. 


WARBURTON. 

Extract  from  a  Discourse  preached  by  Warburton, 
Bishop  of  Gloucester,  before  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  at  their  Anniversary 
Meeting,  on  the  21s£  of  February,  1766. 

"To  talk  (as  in  herds  of  cattle)  of  property  in 
rational  creatures — creatures  endowed  with  all  our 
faculties,  possessing  all  our  qualities  but  that  of  color, 
our  brethren  both  by  nature  and  grace — shocks  all  the 
feelings  of  humanity  and  the  dictates  of  common  sense. 
Nothing  is  more  certain  in  itself  and  apparent  to  all, 
than  that  the  infamous  traffic  for  slaves  directly  in- 
fringes both  divine  and  human  law.  Nature  created 
jnan  free  ;  and  grace  invites  him  to  assert  his  freedom. 
In  excuse  of  this  violation  it  hatn  been  pretended, 
that  though  indeed  these  miserable  outcasts  of 
humanity  be  torn  from  their  homes  and  native 
country  by  fraud  and  violence,  yet  they  thereby  be- 
came the  happier,  and  their  condition  the  more 
eligible.  But  who  are  you  who  pretend  ^0  judge  of 
another  man's  happiness, —  that  state  which  each  mavn, 


108  GENERAL    APPENDIX. 

under_tbe  guidance  of  his  Maker,  forms  for  himself, 
and  not  one  man  for  another  ?  To  know  what  consti- 
tutes mine  or  your  happiness  is  the  sole  prerogative 
of  Him  who  created  us  and  cast  us  in  so  various  and 
different  moulds.  Did  your  slaves  ever  complain 
to  you  of  their  unhappiness  amidst  their  native 
woods  and  deserts  ?  Or,  rather,  let  me  ask,  did 
they  ever  cease  complaining  of  their  condition  under 
you,  their  lordly  masters  ?  where  they  see,  indeed, 
the  accommodations  of  civil  life,  but  see  them  all  pass 
to  others,  themselves  unbenefited  by  them.  Be  so 
gracious,  then,  ye  petty  tyrants  over  human  freedom, 
to  let  your  slaves  judge  for  themselves  what  it  is 
which  makes  their  own  happiness.  And  then  see 
whether  they  do  not  place  it  in  a  return  to  their  own 
country,  rather  than  in  the  contemplation  of  your 
grandeur,  of  which  their  misery  makes  so  large  a 
part, — a  return  so  passionately  langed  for,  that,  de- 
spairing of  happiness  here,  that  is,  of  escaping  the 
chains  of  their  cruel  taskmasters,  they  console 
themselves  with  feigning  it  to  be  the  gracious  re- 
ward of  Heaven  in  their  future  state ;  which  I  do 
not  find  their  haughty  masters  have  as  yet  concerned 
themselves  to  invade.  The  less  hardy,  indeed,  wait 
for  this  felicity  till  overwearied  nature  sets  them 
free  ;  but  the  more  resolved  have  recourse  even  to 
self-violence  to  force  a  speedier  passage." 


GENERAL    APPENDIX.  109 

VIRGINIA  GAZETTE. 

Extract  from  an  Address  in  the  Virginia  Gazette, 
March  19,  1767. 

"Long  and  serious  reflections  upon  the  nature  and 
consequences  of  slavery  have  convinced  me  that  it  is  a 
violation  both  of  justice  and  religion ;  that  it  is  danger- 
ous to  the  safety  of  the  community  in  which  it  pre- 
vails; that  it  is  destructive  to  the  growth  of  arts  and 
sciences ;  and  lastly,  that  it  produces  a  numerous  and 
very  fatal  train  of  vices,  both  in  the  slave  and  in  his 
master. 

"  To  prove  these  assertions  shall  be  the  purpose  of 
the  following  essay. 

11  That  slavery,  then,  is  a  violation  of  justice,  will 
plainly  appear  when  we  consider  what  justice  is.  It 
is  simply  and  truly  denned,  by  Justinian, — 

^"Obnstans  et  perpetua  voluntas  Jus  suum  cuique 
triluendi. 

"  A  constant  endeavor  to  give  every  man  his  right. 

"Now,  as  freedom  is  unquestionably  the  birth- 
right Of  all  mankind,  Africans  as  well  as  Europeans, 
to  keep  the  former  in  a  state  of  slavery  is  a  constant 
violation  of  that  right,  and  therefore  of  justice. 

"The  ground  on  which  the  civilians  who  favor  sla- 
very admit  it  to  be  just,  namely,  consent,  force,  and 
birth,  is  totally  disputable.  For  surely  a  man's  own 
will  and  consent  cannot  be  allowed  to  introduce  so  im- 
portant an  innovation  into  society  as  slavery,  or  to 
make  himself  an  outlaw,  which  is  really  the  state  of  a 
10 


110  GENERAL    APPENDIX. 

slave,  since,  neither  consenting  to  nor  aiding  the  law? 
of  the  society  in  which  he  lives,  he  is  neither  bound 
to  obey  them  nor  entitled  to  their  protection. 

11  To  found  any  right  in  force  is  to  frustrate  all 
right  and  involve  every  thing  in  confusion,  violence, 
and  rapine.  With  these  two  the  last  must  fall, 
since  if  the  parent  cannot  justly  be  made  a  slave, 
neither  can  the  child  be  born  in  slavery.  l  It  is  not 
true,'  says  Baron  Montesquieu,  '  that  fr  free  mafl 
can  sell  himself;  for  sate  supposes  a  price;  but  a 
sTaVe1  Ulld  his  property  becomes  immediately  that  of 
his  master :  the  slave  can  therefore  receive  no  price, 
nor  the  master  pay,  &c.  And  if  a  man  cannot  sell 
himself,  nor  a  prisoner  of  war  be  reduced  to  slavery, 
much  less  can  his  child/  ^T 

"Yet  even  these  rights  of  imposing  slavery, 
questionable,  nay,  refutable,  as  they  are,  we  have 
not  to  authorize  the  bondage  of  the  Africans.  For 
neither  do  they  consent  to  be  our  slaves,  nor  do 
we  purchase  them  of  their  conquerors.  The  British 
merchants  obtain  them  from  Africa  by  violence, 
artifice,  and  treachery,  with  a  few  trinkets  to  prompt 
those  unfortunate  people  to  enslave  one  another  by 
force  or  stratagem.  Purchase  them  indeed  they  may, 
under  the  authority  of  an  act  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment,— an  act  entailing  upon  the  Africans,  with 
whom  we  are  not  at  war,  and  over  whom  a  British 
Parliament  could  not  of  right  assume  even  a  shadow 
of  authority,  the  dreadful  curse  of  perpetual  slavery 
upon  them  and  their  children  forever.  There  can- 


GENERAL    APPENDIX.  Ill 

not  be  in  nature,  there  is  not  in  all  history,  an  in- 
stance in  which  every  right  of  men  is  more  flagrantly 
violated.  The  laws  of  the  ancients  never  authorized 
the  making  slaves  but  of  those  nations  whom  they  had 
conquered;  yet  they  were  heathens  and  we  are  Chris- 
tians. They  were  misled  by  a  monstrous  religion, 
divested  of  humanity  by  a  horrible  and  barbarous 
worship;  we  are  directed  by  the  unerring  precepts  of 
the  revealed  religion  we  possess,  enlightened  by  its 
wisdom,  and  humanized  by  its  benevolence  :  before 
them  were  gods  deformed  with  passions,  and  horrible 
for  every  cruelty  and  vice;  before  us  is  that  incom- 
parable pattern  of  meekness,  chanty,  love,  and  justice 
to  mankind  which  so  transcendently  distinguished 
the  Founder  of  Christianity  and  his  ever-amiable 
doctrines. 

" leader,  remember  that  the  corner-stone  of  your 
religion  is,  to  do  unto  others  as  you  would  they  should 
do  unto  you :  ask  then  your  own  heart  whether  it 
would  not  abhor  any  one,  as  the  most  outrageous 
violator  of  that  and  every  other  principle  of  right, 
justice,  and  humanity,  who  should  make  a  slave  of 
you  and  your  posterity  forever.  Remember  that 
God  knoweth  the  heart :  lay  not  this  flattering  unc- 
tion to  your  soul,  that  it  is  the  custom  of  the  country; 
that  you  found  it  so;  that  not  your  will  but  your 
necessity  consents.  Ah!  think  how  little  such  an 
excuse  will  avail  you  in  that  awful  day  when  your 
Saviour  shall  pronounce  judgment  on  you  for  break- 
ing a  law  too  plain  to  be  misunderstood,  too  sacred 


112  GENERAL    APPENDIX. 

to  be  violated.  If  we  say  that  we  are  Christians,  yet 
act  more  inhumanly  and  unjustly  than  heathens,  with 
what  dreadful  justice  must  this  sentence  of  our  blessed 
Saviour  fall  upon  us ! — l  Not  every  one  that  saith 
unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven/  (Matt.  vii.  21.)  Think  a  moment 
how  nmchjrour  temj^raj^y^j^  etera^^ 
upon  an  abolition  of  a  practice  which  deforms  the 
image  ofyour  God,  tramples  on  his  revealed  will,  in- 
fringes the  most  sacred  rights,  and  violates  humanity." 

DR.  RUSH. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  an  eminent  physician  of  Phila- 
delphia, issued,  in  1773,  an  Address  to  the  Inhabit- 
ants of  America  on  Slave-Keeping,  from  which  we 
extract  the  following : — 

"Liberty  and  property  form  the  basis  of  abun- 
dance and  good  agriculture :  I  never  observed  it  to 
flourish  where  those  rights  of  mankind  were  not 
firmly  established.  The  earth,  which  multiplies  her 
productions  with  a  kind  of  profusion  under  the  hands 
of  the  free-born  laborer,  seems  to  shrink  into  bar- 
renness under  the  sweat  of  the  slave.  Such  is  the 
will  of  the  Great  Author  of  our  nature,  who  has 
created  man  free,  and  assigned  to  him  the  earth,  that 
he  might  cultivate  his  possession  with  the  sweat  of 
his  brow,  but  still  should  enjoy  his  liberty. 

11  Now,  if  the  plantations  in  the  islands  and  the  south- 
ern colonies  were  more  limited,  and  freemen  only 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  113 

employed  in  working  them;  the  general  pioduct 
would  be  greater,  although  the  profits  to  individuals 
would  be  less, — a  circumstance,  this,  which,  by  dimi- 
nishing opulence  in  a  few,  would  suppress  luxury 
and  vice,  and  promote  that  equal  distribution  of  pro- 
perty which  appears  best  calculated  to  promote  the 
welfare  of  society.*  I  know  it  has  been  said  by 
some  that  none  but  the  natives  of  warm  climates 
could  undergo  the  excessive  heat  and  labor  of  the 
West  India  Islands.  But  this  argument  is  founded 
upon  an  error;  for  the  reverse  of  this  is  true.  I 
have  been  informed,  by  good  authority,  that  one 
European  who  escapes  the  first  or  second  year  will 
do  twice  the  work  and  live  twice  the  number  of  years 
that  an  ordinary  negro  man  will  do :  nor  need  we  be 
surprised  at  this,  when  we  hear  that  such  is  the 
natural  fertility  of  soil  and  so  numerous  the  spon- 
taneous fruits  of  the  earth  in  the  interior  parts  of 
Africa,  that  the  natives  live  in  plenty  at  the  expense 

"*  From  this  account  of  Le  Poivre  we  may  learn  the  futility 
of  the  argument  that  the  number  of  vessels  in  the  sugar-trade 
serve  as  a  nursery  for  seamen,  and  that  the  negroes  consume  a 
large  quantity  of  the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain.  If  free- 
men only  were  employed  in  the  islands,  a  double  quantity  of 
sugar  would  be  made,  and  of  course  twice  the  number  of  vessels 
and  seamen  would  be  made  use  of  in  the  trade.  One  freeman 
consumes  yearly  four  times  the  quantity  of  British  goods  that  a 
negro  does.  Slaves  multiply  in  all  countries  slowly.  Freemen 
multiply  in  proportion  as  slavery  is  discouraged.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  therefore  that  motives  of  policy  will  at  last  induce  Britons 
to  give  up  a  trade  which  those  of  justice  and  humanity  cannot 
prevail  upon  them  to  relinquish. 
10* 


114  GENEPAL     APPENDIX. 

of  little  or  no  labor,  which  in  warm  climates  has 
ever  been  found  to  be  incompatible  with  long  life  and 
happiness.  Future  ages,  therefore,  when  they  read 
the  accounts  of  the  slave-trade,  (if  they  do  not  re- 
gard them  as  fabulous,)  will  be  at  a  loss  which  to 
condemn  most,  our  folly  or  our  guilt  in  ubetting  this 
direct  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  religion." 

"  Christ  commands  us  to  look  upon  all  mankind, 
even  our  enemies,  as  our  neighbors  and  brethren, 
and  l  in  all  things  to  do  unto  them  whatever  we 
would  wish  they  should  do  unto  us.'  He  tells  us, 
further,  that  his  '  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world/  and 
therefore  constantly  avoids  saying  any  thing  that 
might  interfere  directly  with  the  Roman  or  Jewish 
governments :  so  that  although  he  does  not  call  upon 
masters  to  emancipate  their  slaves,  or  upon  slaves  to 
assert  that  liberty  wherewith  God  and  nature  had 
made  them  free,  yet  there  is  scarcely  a  parable  or  a 
sermon  in  the  whole  history  of  his  life  but  what  con- 
tains the  strongest  arguments  against  slavery.  Every 
prohibition  of  covetousness,  intemperance,  pride,  un- 
cleanness,  theft,  and  murder,  which  he  delivered, 
every  lesson  of  meekness,  humility,  forbearance, 
charity,  self-denial,  and  brotherly  love,  which  he 
taught,  are  levelled  against  this  evil;  for  slavery, 
while  it  includes  all  the  former  vices,  necessarily 
excludes  the  practice  of  all  the  later  virtues,  both 
from  the  master  and  the  slave.  Let  such,  therefore, 
who  vindicate  the  traffic  of  buying  and  selling  souls, 
seek  some  modern  system  of  religion  to  support  it, 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  115 

and  not  presume  to  sanctify  their  crime  by  attempt- 
ing to  reconcile  it  to  the  sublime  and  perfect  religion 
of  the  Great  Author  of  Christianity." 

"Ye  men  of  sense  and  virtue,  ye  advocates  for 
American  liberty,  rouse  up  and  espouse  the  cause 
of  humanity  and  general  liberty.  Bear  a  testimony 
against  a  vice  which  degrades  human  nature  and 
dissolves  that  universal  tie  of  benevolence  which 
should  connect  all  the  children  of  men  together  in 
one  great  family.  The  plant  of  liberty  is  of  so  tender 
a  nature  that  it  cannot  thrive  long  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  slavery.  Remember,  the  eyes  of  all  Europe 
are  fixed  upon  you,  to  preserve  an  asylum  for  free- 
dom in  this  country  after  the  last  pillars  of  it  are 
fallen  in  every  other  quarter  of  the  globe. 

"But  chiefly,  ye  ministers  of  the  gospel,  whose 
dominion  over  the  principles  and  actions  of  men  is  so 
universally  acknowledged  and  felt,  ye  who  estimate 
the  worth  of  your  fellow-creatures  by  their  immor- 
tality, and  therefore  must  look  upon  all  mankind  as 
equal,  let  your  zeal  keep  pace  with  your  opportuni- 
ties to  put  a  stop  to  slavery.  While  you  enforce 
the  duties  of  'tithe  and  cummin/  neglect  not  the 
weightier  laws  of  justice  and  humanity.  ^Slayeryis 

a  hydra  sin,  and   includes  in  if,  pypry  vinlafinn  nf 

precepts  of  the  law  and  the  gospel.  In  vain  will 
you  command  your  docks  to  otter  up  the  incense 
of  faith  and  charity  while  they  continue  to  mingle 
the  sweat  and  blood  of  negro  slaves  with  their  sacri- 
fices." 


116  GENERAL    APPENDIX. 

SUNDRY  TESTIMONIES.* 

SOCRATES  : — "  Slavery  is  a  system  of  outrage  and 
robbery." 

ARISTOTLE  : — "  It  is  neither  good,  nor  is  it  just, 
seeing  all  men  are  by  nature  alike  and  equal,  that 
one  should  be  lord  and  master  over  others." 

POLYBIUS  : — "  None  but  unprincipled  and  beastly 
men  in  society  assume  the  mastery  over  their  fellows, 
as  it  is  among  bulls,  bears,  and  cocks." 

PLATO  : — "  Slavery  is  a  system  of  the  most  com- 
plete injustice." 

CICERO  : — "  By  the  grand  laws  of  nature,  all  men 
are  born  free,  and  this  law  is  universally  binding 
upon  all  men." 

"  Eternal  justice  is  the  basis  of  all  human  laws." 

"  Whatever  is  just  is  also  the  true  law ;  nor 
can  this  true  law  be  abrogated  by  any  written 
enactments." 

11  If  there  be  such  a  power  in  the  decrees  and  com- 
mands of  fools,  that  the  nature  of  things  is  changed 
by  their  votes,  why  do  they  not  decree  that  what  is 
bad  and  pernicious  shall  be  regarded  as  good  and 
wholesome,  or  why,  if  the  law  can  make  wrong  right, 
can  it  not  make  bad  good  ?" 

*  For  many  of  these  quotations,  the  compilers  are  indebted  to 
Helper's  valuable  work  entitled  "  The  Impending  Crisis  in  the 
South." 


GENERAL    APPENDIX.  117 

"  Those  who  have  made  pernicious  and  unjust  de- 
crees have  made  any  thing  rather  than  laws." 

LACTANTIUS  : — "  Justice  teaches  men  to  know 
God  and  to  love  men,  to  love  and  assist  one  another, 
being  all  equally  the  children  of  God." 

LORD  MANSFIELD  : — "The  state  of  slavery  is  of 
such  a  nature  that  it  is  incapable  of  being  intro- 
duced on  any  reasons,  moral  or  political,  but  only 
by  positive  law,  which  preserves  its  force  long  after 
the  reasons,  occasion,  and  time  itself  whence  it  was 
created,  are  erased  from  the  memory.  It  is  so  odious 
that  nothing  can  be  sufficient  to  support  it  but 
positive  law.  Whatever  inconveniences,  therefore, 
may  follow  from  the  decision,  I  cannot  say  this  case 
is  allowed  or  approved  by  the  law  of  England,  and 
therefore  the  black  must  be  discharged." 

LOCKE  : — "  Slavery  is  so  vile,  so  miserable  a 
state  of  man,  and  so  directly  opposite  to  the  generous 
temper  and  courage  of  our  nation,  that  it  is  hard  to 
be  convinced  that  an  Englishman,  much  less  a  gentle- 
man, should  plead  for  it." 

Again,  he  says,  "Though  the  earth  and  all  in- 
ferior creatures  be  common  to  all  men,  yet  every 
man  has  a  property  in  his  own  person :  this  nobody 
has  any  right  to  but  himself." 

WILLIAM  PITT  : — "  It  is  injustice  to  permit  slavery 
to  remain  for  a  single  hour." 


118  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

CHARLES  Fox: — "With  regard  to  a  regulation  of 
slavery,  my  detestation  of  its  existence  induces  me  to 
know  no  such  thing  as  a  regulation  of  robbery  and  a 
restriction  of  murder.  Personal  freedom  is  a  right  of 
which  he  who  deprives  a  fellow-creature  is  criminal 
in  so  depriving  him,  and  he  who  withholds  is  no  less 
criminal  in  withholding." 

Dr.  JOHNSON: — "No  man  is  by  nature  the  pro- 
perty of  another.  The  rights  of  nature  must  be 
some  way  forfeited  before  they  can  justly  be  taken 
away." 

Dr.  PRICE  : — "  If  you  have  a  right  to  make  another 
man  a  slave,  he  has  a  right  to  make  you  a  slave." 

BUFFON  : — "  It  is  apparent  that  the  unfortunate 
negroes  are  endowed  with  excellent  hearts,  and 
possess  the  seeds  of  every  human  virtue.  I  cannot 
write  their  history  without  lamenting  their  miserable 
condition.  Humanity  revolts  at  those  odious  op- 
pressions that  result  from  avarice." 

BLACKSTONE  : — "If  neither  captivity  nor  contract 
can,  by  the  plain  law  of  nature  and  reason,  reduce 
the  parent  to  a  state  of  slavery,  much  less  can  they 
reduce  the  offspring." 

Again,  he  says,  "The  primary  aim  of  society  is  to 
protect  individuals  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  abso- 
lute rights  which  were  vested  in  them  by  the  im- 
mutable laws  of  nature.  Hence  it  follows  that  the 


GENERAL    APPENDIX.  119 

first  and  primary  end  of  human  laws  is  to  maintain 
those  absolute  rights  of  individuals." 

Again,  "  If  any  human  law  shall  allow  or  require  us 
to  commit  crime,  we  are  bound  to  transgress  that 
human  law,  or  else  we  must  offend  both  the  natural 
and  divine." 

LORD  COKE  : — "  What  the  Parliament  doth  shall  be 
holden  for  naught  whenever  it  shall  enact  that  which 
is  contrary  to  the  rights  of  nature." 

HAMPDEN  : — "The  essence  of  all  law  is  justice. 
What  is  not  justice  is  not  law;  and  what  is  not  law 
ought  not  to  be  obeyed." 

HARRINGTON: — "All  men  naturally  are  equal; 
for  though  nature  with  a  noble  variety  has  made  dif- 
ferent features  and  lineaments  of  men,  yet  as  to  free- 
dom she  has  made  every  one  alike  and  given  them 
the  same  desires." 

FORTESCUE  : — "  Those  rights  which  God  and 
nature  have  established,  and  which  are  therefore 
called  natural  rights,  such  as  life  and  liberty,  need 
not  the  aid  of  human  laws  to  be  more  effectually  in- 
vested in  every  man  than  they  are;  neither  do  they 
receive  any  additional  strength  when  declared  by  the 
municipal  laws  to  be  inviolable.  On  the  contrary, 
no  human  power  has  any  authority  to  abridge  or  de- 
stroy them  unless  the  owner  himself  shall  commit 
some  act  that  amounts  to  a  forfeiture." 


120  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

Again,  he  says,  "  The  law,  therefore,  which  sup- 
ports slavery  and  opposes  liberty,  must  necessarily 
be  condemned  as  cruel,  for  every  feeling  of  human 
nature  advocates  liberty.  Slavery  is  introduced  by 
human  wickedness;  but  God  advocates  liberty,  by 
the  nature  which  he  has  given  to  man/' 

LORD  BROUGHAM  : — "Tell  me  not  of  rights;  talk 
not  of  the  property  of  the  planter  in  his  slaves.  I 
deny  the  right ;  I  acknowledge  not  the  property.  In 
vain  you  tell  me  of  laws  that  sanction  such  a 
claim.  There  is  a  law  above  all  the  enactments  of 
human  codes,  the  same  throughout  the  world,  the 
same  in  all  times  :  it  is  the  law  written  by  the  finger 
of  God  on  the  hearts  of  men ;  and  by  that  law,  un- 
changeable and  eternal,  while  men  despise  fraud, 
and  loathe  rapine,  and  abhor  blood,  they  shall  reject 
with  indignation  the  wild  and  guilty  fantasy  that 
man  can  hold  property  in  man." 

EDMUND  BURKE  : — "  Slavery  is  a  state  so  im- 
proper, so  degrading,  and  so  ruinous  to  the  feelings 
and  capacities  of  human  nature,  that  it  ought  not 
to  be  suffered  to  exist." 

CURRAN,  in  a  burst  of  passionate  eloquence,  ex- 
claims : — "  I  speak  in  the  spirit  of  British  law, 
which  makes  liberty  commensurate  with  and  in- 
separable from  British  soil;  which  proclaims  even 
to  the  stranger  and  the  sojourner,  the  moment  he 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  121 

sets  his  foot  upon  British  earth,  that  the  ground  on 
which  he  treads  is  holy  and  consecrated  by  the  genius 
of  Universal  Emancipation.  No  matter  in  what 
language  his  doom  may  have  been  pronounced ;  no 
matter  what  complexion,  incompatible  with  freedom, 
an  Indian  or  African  sun  may  have  burnt  upon  him; 
no  matter  in  what  disastrous  battle  his  liberty  may 
have  been  cloven  down ;  no  matter  with  what  so- 
lemnities he  may  have  been  devoted  upon  the  altar 
of  slavery;  the  moment  he  touches  the  sacred  soil  of 
Britain,  the  altar  and  the  god  sink  together  in  the 
dust;  his  soul  walks  abroad  in  her  own  majesty; 
and  he  stands  redeemed,  regenerated,  and  disen- 
thralled by  the  irresistible  genius  of  Universal 
Emancipation." 

BEATTIE  : — "  Slavery  is  inconsistent  with  the 
dearest  and  most  essential  rights  of  man's  nature ; 
it  is  detrimental  to  virtue  and  industry ;  it  hardens 
the  heart  to  those  tender  sympathies  which  form  the 
most  lovely  part  of  the  human  character ;  it  involves 
the  innocent  in  hopeless  misery,  in  order  to  procure 
wealth  and  pleasure  for  the  authors  of  that  misery ; 
it  seeks  to  degrade  into  brutes  beings  whom  the 
Lord  of  Heaven  and  Earth  endowed  with  rational 
souls  and  created  for  immortality;  in  short,  it  is 
utterly  repugnant  to  every  principle  of  reason,  re- 
ligion, humanity,  and  conscience.  It  is  impossible 
for  a  considerate  and  unprejudiced  mind  to  think 
of  slavery  without  horror/' 
11 


122  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 


"  Slaves  cannot  breathe  in  England  :  if  their  lungs 
Receive  our  air,  that  moment  they  are  free. 
They  touch  our  country,  and  their  shackles  falL 
That's  noble,  and  bespeaks  a  nation  proud 
And  jealous  of  the  blessing.     Spread  it,  then, 
And  let  it  circulate  through  every  vein 
Of  all  your  Empire,  that  where  Britain's  power 
Is  felt,  mankind  may  feel  her  mercy  too  !" 

MILLER: — "The  human  mind  revolts  at  a  serious 
discussion  of  the  subject  .of  slavery.  Every  in- 
dividual, whatever  be  his  country  or  complexion, 
is  entitled  to  freedom." 

MACKNIGHT  : — "  Men-stealers  are  inserted  among 
the  daring  criminals  against  whom  the  law  of  God 
directed  its  awful  curses.  These  were  persons  who 
kidnapped  men  to  sell  them  for  slaves;  and  this 
practice  seems  inseparable  from  the  other  iniquities 
and  oppressions  of  slavery;  nor  can  a  slave-dealer 
easily  keep  free  from  this  criminality,  if  indeed  the 
receiver  is  as  bad  as  the  thief." 

THOMAS  SCOTT,  the  celebrated  English  Pres- 
byterian Commentator,  says, — 

"To  number  the  persons  of  men  with  beasts, 
sheep,  and  horses,  as  the  stock  of  a  farm,  or  with 
bales  of  goods,  as  the  cargo  of  a  ship,  is,  no  doubt, 
a  most  detestable  and  anti-Christian  practice." 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  123 

MONTESQUIEU,  in  his  "  Spirit  of  Laws,"  satirically 
writes : — 

"  Were  I  to  vindicate  .our  rights  to  make  slaves  of 
the  negroes,  these  should  be  my  arguments : — 

"The  Europeans,  having  extirpated  the  Americans, 
were  obliged  to  make  slaves  of  the  Africans,  for 
clearing  such  vast  tracts  of  land. 

*'  Sugar  would  be  too  dear  if  the  plants  which  pro- 
duce it  were  cultivated  by  any  other  than  slaves. 

"  These  creatures  are  all  over  black,  and  with  such 
a  flat  nose  that  they  can  scarcely  be  pitied. 

"  It  is  hardly  to  be  believed  that  G  od,  who  is  a  wise 
being,  should  place  a  soul,  especially  a  good  soul,  in 
such  a  black  ugly  body. 

"  The  negroes  prefer  a  glass  necklace  to  that  gold 
which  polite  nations  so  highly  value :  can  there  be  a 
greater  proof  of  their  wanting  common  sense  ? 

"It  is  impossible  for  us  to  suppose  these  creatures 
to  be  men,  because,  allowing  them  to  be  men,  a  sus- 
picion would  follow  that  we  ourselves  are  not  Chris- 
tians."— Book  xv.  chap.  v.  Again,  he  says, — 

(t  What  civil  law  can  restrain  a  slave  from  running 
away,  since  he  is  not  a  member  of  society  ?" 

"  Slavery  is  contrary  to  the  fundamental  principles 
of  all  societies." 

"  In  democracies,  where  they  are  all  upon  an 
equality,  slavery  is  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the 
Constitution." 

"  Nothing  puts  one  nearer  the  condition  of  a  brute 
than  always  to  see  freemen  and  not  be  free." 


124  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

"  Even  the  earth  itself,  which  teeins  with  profusion 
under  the  cultivating  hand  of  the  free-born  laborer, 
shrinks  into  barrenness  from  the  contaminating  sweat 
of  a  slave." 

Dr.  ROBERTSON,  in  treating  of  those  causes  which 
weakened  the  feudal  system,  and  finally  abolished 
slavery  in  Europe  in  the  fourteenth  century,  has  the 
following  observations : — 

"  The  gentle  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion,  to- 
gether with  the  doctrines  which  it  teaches  concern- 
ing the  original  equality  of  mankind,  as  well  as  the 
impartial  eye  with  which  the  Almighty  regards  men 
of  every  condition  and  admits  them  to  a  participation 
of  his  benefits,  are  inconsistent  with  servitude.  But 
in  this,  as  in  many  other  instances,  considerations  of 
interest  and  the  maxims  of  false  policy  led  men  to 
a  conduct  inconsistent  with  their  principles.  They 
were  so  sensible,  however,  of  the  inconsistency,  that 
to  set  their  fellow-Christians  at  liberty  from  servitude 
was  deemed  an  act  of  piety  highly  meritorious,  and 
acceptable  to  Heaven.  The  humane  spirit  of  the 
Christian  religion  struggled  with  the  maxims  and 
manners  of  the  world,  and  contributed  more  than 
any  other  circumstance  to  introduce  the  practice  of 
manumission.  The  formality  of  manumission  was 
executed  in  a  church  or  a  religious  assembly.  The 
person  to  be  set  free  was  led  round  the  great  altar, 
with  a  torch  in  his  hand :  he  took  hold  of  the  horns 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  125 

of  the  altar,  and  there  the  solemn  words  conferring 
liberty  were  pronounced." 

GROTIUS  : — "  Those  are  rnen-stealers  who  abduct, 
keep,  sell,  or  buy  slaves  or  freemen.  To  steal  a  man 
is  the  highest  kind  of  theft." 

LUTHER  : — "  Unjust  violence  is  by  no  means  the 
ordinance  of  God,  and  i.  Before  can  bind  no  one,  in 
conscience  and  right,  to  obey,  whether  the  com- 
mand comes  from  pope,  emperor,  king,  or  master." 

Louis  X. : — "  As  all  men  are  by  nature  free  born, 
and  as  this  kingdom  is  called  the  Kingdom  of 
Franks,  (freemen,)  it  shall  be  so  in  reality.  It  is  there- 
fore decreed  that  enfranchisement  shall  be  granted 
throughout  the  whole  kingdom  upon  just  and  reason- 
able terms." 

LEO  X.  : — "  Not  only  does  the  Christian  religion, 
but  nature  herself,  cry  out  against  the  state  of  slavery." 

GREGORY  XVI. 

It  has  been  only  about  twenty  years  since  Pope 
Gregory  XVI.  distinguished  himself  by  issuing  a 
famous  bull  against  slavery,  from  which  the  following 
is  an  extract : — 

"Placed  as  we  are  on  the  Supreme  seat  of  the 
apostles,  and  acting,  though  by  no  merits  of  our 
own,  as  the  vicegerent  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  who  through  his  great  mercy  condescended  to 
make  himself  man  and  to  die  for  the  redemption  of 


L 


126  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

the  world,  we  regard  as  a  duty  devolving  on  our 
pastoral  functions,  that  we  endeavor  to  turn  aside  our 
faithful  flocks  entirely  from  the  inhuman  trclfic  in 

negroes  or  any  other  human  beings  whatever 

In  progress  of  time,  as  the  clouds  of  heathen  super- 
stition became  gradually  dispersed,  circumstances 
reached  that  point  that  during  several  centuries 
there  were  no  slaves  allowed  amongst  the  great 
majority  of  the  Christian  nations;  but  with  grief 
we  are  compelled  to  add  that  there  afterwards  arose, 
even  among  the  faithful,  a  race  of  men,  who, 
basely  blinded  by  the  appetite  and  desire  of  sordid 
lucre,  did  not  hesitate  to  reduce,  in  remote  regions 
of  the  earth,  Indians,  negroes,  and  other  wretched 
beings,  to  the  misery  of  slavery;  or,  finding  the 
trade  established  and  augmented,  to  assist  the 
shameful  crime  of  others.  Nor  did  many  of  the 
most  glorious  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs  omit  severely 
to  reprove  their  conduct,  as  injurious  to  their  souls' 
health  and  disgraceful  to  the  Christian  name. 
Among  these  may  be  especially  quoted  the  bull  of 
Paul  III.,  which  bears  the  date  of  the  29th  of  May, 
1537,  addressed  to  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of 
Toledo;  and  another,  still  more  comprehensive,  by 
Urban  VIII.,  dated  the  22d  of  April,  1636,  to  the 
collector  Jurius  of  the  Apostolic  Chamber  in  Portu- 
gal, most  severely  castigating  by  name  those  who 
presumed  to  subject  either  East  or  West  Indians  to 
slavery,  to  sell,  buy,  exchange,  or  give  them  away,  to 
separate  them  from  their  wives  and  children,  despoil 


GENERAL    APPENDIX.  127 

them  of  their  goods  and  property,  to  bring  or  trans- 
mit them  to  other  places,  or  by  any  means  to  deprive 
them  of  liberty,  or  retain  them  in  slavery ;  also  most 
severely  castigating  those  who  should  presume  or 
dare  to  afford  council,  aid,  favor,  or  assistance,  under 
any  pretext,  or  borrowed  color,  to  those  doing  the 
aforesaid ;  or  should  preach  or  teach  that  it  is  lawful, 
or  should  otherwise  presume  or  dare  to  co-operate, 

by  any  possible  means,  with  the  aforesaid 

Wherefore,  we,  desiring  to  divert  this  disgrace  from 
the  whole  confines  of  Christianity,  having  summoned 
several  of  our  venerable  brothers,  their  Eminences 
the  Cardinals  of  the  H.  E-.  Church,  to  our  council, 
and  having  maturely  deliberated  on  the  whole 
matter,  pursuing  the  footsteps  of  our  predecessors, 
admonish  by  our  apostolical  authority,  and  urgently 
invoke  in  the  Lord,  all  Christians,  of  whatever  con- 
dition, that  none  henceforth  dare  to  subject  to  sla- 
very, unjustly  persecute,  or  despoil  of  their  goods, 
Indians,  negroes,  or  other  classes  of  men,  or  be  ac- 
cessories to  others,  or  furnish  them  aid  or  assistance 
in  so  doing;  and  on  no  account  henceforth  to  ex- 
ercise that  inhuman  traffic  by  which  negroes  are 
reduced  to  slavery,  as  if  they  were  not  men,  but 
automata  or  chattels,  and  are  sold  in  defiance  of  all 
the  laws  of  justice  and  humanity,  and  devoted  to 
severe  and  intolerable  labors.  We  further  reprobate, 
by  our  apostolical  authority,  all  the  above-described 
offences  as  utterly  unworthy  the  Christian  name; 
and  by  the  same  authority  we  rigidly  prohibit  and 


128  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

interdict  all  and  every  individual,  whether  ecclesi- 
astical or  laical,  from  presuming  to  defend  that  com- 
merce in  negro  slaves  under  pretence  or  borrowed 
color,  or  to  teach  or  publish  in  any  manner,  publicly 
or  privately,  things  contrary  to  the  admonitions 
which  we  have  given  in  these  letters. 

"And,  finally,  that  these  our  letters  may  be 
rendered  more  apparent  to  all,  and  that  no  person 
may  allege  any  ignorance  thereof,  we  decree  and 
order  that  it  shall  be  published  according  to  custom, 
and  copies  thereof  be  properly  affixed  to  the  gates  of 
St.  Peter  and  of  the  Apostolic  Chancel,  every  and 
in  like  manner  to  the  General  Court  of  Mount  Cita- 
torio,  and  in  the  field  of  the  Campus  Florae  and 
also  through  the  city,  by  one  of  our  heralds,  accord- 
ing to  aforesaid  custom. 

"  Given  at  Rome,  at  the  Palace  of  Santa  Maria 
Major,  under  the  seal  of  the  fisherman,  on  the  3d 
day  of  December,  1837,  and  in  the  ninth  year  of 
our  pontificate. 

"  Countersigned  by  Cardinal  A.  Lambruschini." 

I^AFAYETTE. 

"  I  would  never  have  drawn  my  sword  in  the  cause 
of  America  if  I  could  have  conceived  that  thereby  I 
was  founding  a  land  of  slavery." 

Again,  while  in  the  prison  of  Magdeburg,  he  says, 
"  I  know  not  what  disposition  has  been  made  of  my 
plantation  at  Cayenne ;  but  I  hope  Madame  de 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  129 

Lafayette  will  take  care  that  the  negroes  who  culti- 
vate it  shall  preserve  their  liberty." 

WASHINGTON. 

In  a  letter  to  John  F.  Mercer,  dated  September 
9th,  1786,  General  Washington  writes, — 

"I  never  mean,  unless  some  particular  circum- 
stances should  compel  me  to  it,  to  possess  another 
slave  by  purchase,  it  being  among  my  first  wishes  to 
see  some  plan  adopted  by  which  slavery  in  this 
country  may  be  abolished  by  law." 

In  a  letter  to  Robert  Morris,  dated  Mount  Vernon, 
April  12,  1786,  he  makes  the  following  declaration 
with  regard  to  slavery  : — 

"  I  can  only  say  that  there  is  not  a  man  living  who 
wishes  more  sincerely  than  I  do  to  see  a  plan  adopted 
for  the  abolition  of  it.  But  there  is  only  one  proper 
and  effectual  mode  by  which  it  can  be  accomplished, 
and  that  is  by  legislative  authority ;  and  this,  as  far 
as  my  suffrage  will  go,  shall  never  be  wanting." 

He  says,  in  a  letter 

"To  the  MARQUIS  DE  LAFAYETTE,  April  5th,  1783. 

"  The  scheme,  my  dear  marquis,  which  you  pro- 
pose as  a  precedent  to  encourage  the  emancipation 
of  the  black  people  in  this  country  from  the  state  of 
bondage  in  which  they  are  held,  is  a  striking  evi- 
dence of  the  benevolence  of  your  heart.  I  shall 
be  happy  to  join  you  in  so  laudable  a  work,  but 
will  defer  going  into  a  detail  of  the  business  till  I 
have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you." 


130  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

In  another  letter  to  Lafayette,  he  writes, — 

"The  benevolence  of  your  heart,  my  dear  marquis, 
is  so  conspicuous  on  all  occasions,  that  I  never  wonder 
at  any  fresh  proofs  of  it;  but  your  late  purchase  of 
an  estate  in  the  Colony  of  Cayenne,  with  a  view  of 
emancipating  the  slaves  on  it,  is  a  generous  and 
noble  proof  of  your  humanity.  Would  to  God  a 
like  spirit  might  diffuse  itself  generally  into  the 
minds  of  the  people  of  this  country  I" 

In  a  letter  to  Sir  John  Sinclair,  he  further  said, — 

"  There  are  in  Pennsylvania  laws  for  the  gradual 
abolition  of  slavery,  which  neither  Virginia  nor 
Maryland  have  at  present,  but  which  nothing  is 
more  certain  than  they  must  have,  and  at  a  period 
not  remote. " 

From  his  last  will  and  testament  we  make  the 
following  extract : — 

"  Upon  the  decease  of  my  wife,  it  is  my  will  and 
desire  that  all  the  slaves  which  I  hold  in  my  own 
right  shall  receive  their  freedom.  To  emancipate 
them  during  her  life  would,  though  earnestly  wished 
by  me,  be  attended  with  such  insuperable  difficulties, 
on  account  of  their  intermixture  by  marriage  with 
the  dower  negroes,  as  to  excite  the  most  painful 
sensation,  if  not  disagreeable  consequences,  from  the 
latter,  while  both  descriptions  are  in  the  occupancy 
of  the  same  proprietor,  it  not  being  in  my  power, 
under  the  tenure  by  which  the  dower  negroes  are 
held,  to  manumit  them." 

When  Mrs.  Washington  learned,  from  the  will  of 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  131 

her  deceased  husband,  that  the  only  obstacle  to  the 
immediate  perfection  of  this  provision  was  her  right 
of  dower,  she  at  once  gave  it  up,  and  the  slaves  were 
made  free. 

JEFFERSON. 

On  the  39th  and  40th  pages  of  his  "  Notes  on  Vir- 
ginia/' Jefferson  says, — 

"There  must  doubtless  be  an  unhappy  influence 
on  the  manners  of  our  people,  produced  by  the  ex- 
istence of  slavery  among  us.  The  whole  commerce 
between  master  and  slave  is  a  perpetual  exercise  of 
the  most  boisterous  passions, — the  most  unremitting 
despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading  submissions 
on  the  other.  Our  children  see  this,  and  learn  to 
imitate  it;  for  man  is  an  imitative  animal.  This 
quality  is  the  germ  of  all  education  in  him.  From 
his  cradle  to  his  grave,  he  is  learning  to  do  what  he 
sees  others  do.  If  a  parent  could  find  no  motive, 
either  in  his  philanthropy  or  his  self-love,  for  re- 
straining the  intemperance  of  passion  towards  his 
slave,  it  should  always  be  a  sufficient  one  that  his 
child  is  present.  But  generally  it  is  not  sufficient. 
The  parent  storms,  the  child  looks  on;  catches  the 
lineaments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the 
circle  of  smaller  slaves,  gives  a  loose  rein  to  the 
worst  of  passions,  and,  thus  nursed,  educated,  and  daily 
exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot  but  be  stamped  by  it 
with  odious  peculiarities.  The  man  must  be  a  pro- 
digy who  can  retain  his  manners  and  morals  un- 
depraved  by  such  circumstances.  And  with  what 


132  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

execration  should  the  statesman  be  loaded,  who,  per- 
mitting one  half  the  citizens  thus  to  trample  on  the 
rights  of  the  other,  transforms  those  into  despots  and 
these  into  enemies,  destroys  the  morals  of  the  one 
part  and  the  amor  patrise  of  the  other !  for  if  a 
slave  can  have  a  country  in  this  world,  it  must  be 
any  other  in  preference  to  that  in  which  he  is  born 
to  live  and  labor  for  another ;  in  which  he  must  look 
up  the  faculties  of  his  nature,  contribute,  as  far  as 
depends  on  his  individual  endeavors,  to  the  evanish- 
ment  of  the  human  race,  or  entail  his  own  miserable 
condition  on  the  endless  generations  proceeded  from 
him.  With  the  morals  of  the  people,  their  industry 
also  is  destroyed;  for,  in  a  warm  climate,  no  man 
will  labor  for  himself  who  can  make  another  labor 
for  him.  This  is  so  true,  that  of  the  proprietors  of 
slaves  a  very  small  portion,  indeed,  are  ever  seen  to 
labor.  And  can  the  liberties  of  a  pation  be  thought 
secure,  when  we  have  removed  their  only  firm  basis, 
— a  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  people  that  these 
liberties  are  of  the  gift  of  God  ?  that  they  are  not  to 
be  violated  but  with  his  wrath  ?  Indeed,  I  tremble 
for  my  country  when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just ;  that 
his  justice  cannot  sleep  forever;  that,  considering 
numbers,  nature,  and  natural  means  only,  a  revolu- 
tion of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of  situa- 
tion, is  among  possible  events !  that  it  may  become 
probable  by  supernatural  interference!  The  Almighty 
has  no  attribute  which  can  take  side  with  us  in  such 
a  contest."  Again,  he  writes, — 


GENERAL   APPENDIX.  133 

"  We  must  wait  with  patience  the  workings  of  an 
overruling  Providence,  and  hope  that  that  is  pre- 
paring the  deliverance  of  these  our  brethren.  When 
the  measure  of  their  tears  shall  be  full,  when  their 
groans  shall  have  involved  heaven  itself  in  darkness, 
doubtless  a  God  of  justice  will  awaken  to  their  distress. 
Nothing  is  more  certainly  written  in  the  Book  of 
Fate,  than  that  this  people  shall  be  free." 

HENRY. 

The  eloquent  Patrick  Henry  says,  in  a  letter  dated 
January  18,  1773,  on  receiving  one  of  Benezet's 
tracts  on  slavery, — 

"  Is  it  not  a  little  surprising  that  the  professors  of 
Christianity,  whose  chief  excellence  consists  in  soften- 
ing the  human  heart,  in  cherishing  and  improving 
its  finer  feelings,  should  encourage  a  practice  so 
totally  repugnant  to  the  first  impressions  of  right 
and  wrong  ?  What  adds  to  the  wonder  is,  that  this 
abominable  practice  has  been  introduced  in  the  most 
enlightened  ages.  Times  that  seem  to  have  pre- 
tensions to  boast  of  high  improvements  in  the  arts 
and  sciences,  and  refined  morality,  have  brought  into 
general  use,  and  guarded  by  many  laws,  a  species  of 
violence  and  tyranny  which  our  more  rude  and  bar- 
barous but  more  honest  ancestors  detested.  Is  it  not 
amazing  that  at  a  time  when  the  rights  of  humanity 
are  defined  and  understood  with  precision,  in  a 
country  above  all  others  fond  of  liberty, — that  in 
such  an  age  and  in  such  a  country  we  find  men  pro- 


134  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

fessing  a  religion  the  most  inild,  humane,  gentle,  and 
generous,  adopting  such  a  principle,  as  repugnant  to 
humanity  as  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  Bible  and  de- 
structive to  liberty?  Every  thinking,  honest  man 
rejects  it  in  speculation.  How  free  in  practice  from 
conscientious  motives  !  Would  any  one  believe  that 
I  am  master  of  slaves  of  my  own  purchase  ?  I  am 
drawn  along  by  the  general  inconvenience  of  living 
here  without  them.  I  will  not,  I  cannot  justify  it. 
However  culpable  my  conduct,  I  will  so  far  pay  my 
devoir  to  virtue  as  to  own  the  excellence  and  recti- 
tude of  her  precepts,  and  lament  my  want  of  con- 
formity to  them.  I  believe  a  time  will  come  when 
an  opportunity  will  be  offered  to  abolish  this  lament- 
able evil.  Every  thing  we  can  do  is  to  improve  it, 
if  it  happens  in  our  day ;  if  not,  let  us  transmit  to 
our  descendants,  together  with  our  slaves,  a  pity  for 
their  unhappy  lot,  and  an  abhorrence,  for  slavery.  If 
we  cannot  reduce  this  wished-for  reformation  to  prac- 
tice, let  us  treat  the  unhappy  victims  with  lenity.  It 
is  the  furthest  advance  we  can  make  towards  justice. 
It  is  a  debt  we  owe  to  the  purity  of  our  religion, 
to  show  that  it  is  at  variance  with  that  law  which 
warrants  slavery." 

RANDOLPH. 

That  eccentric  genius,  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke, 
in  a  letter  to  William  Gibbons,  in  1820,  says, — 

"  With  unfeigned  respect  and  regard,  and  as  sincere 
a  deprecation  on  the  extension  of  slavery  and  its 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  135 

horrors  as  any  other  man,  be  him  whom  he  may,  I 
am  your  friend,  in  the  literal  sense  of  that  much- 
abused  word.  I  say  much-abused,  because  it  is  ap- 
plied to  the  leagues  of  vice  and  avarice  and  ambition, 
instead  of  good-will  toward  man  from  love  of  Him 
who  is  the  Prince  of  Peace." 

While  in  Congress,  he  said, — 

"  Sir,  I  envy  neither  the  heart  nor  the  head  of  that 
man  from  the  North  who  rises  here  to  defend  slavery 
on  principle." 

CLAY. 

In  the  United  States  Senate,  in  1850,  he  used  the 
following  memorable  words  : — 

"  I  am  extremely  sorry  to  hear  the  Senator  from 
Mississippi  say  that  he  requires,  first  the  extension 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  to  the  Pacific,  and 
also  that  he  is  not  satisfied  with  that,  but  requires,  if 
I  understand  him  correctly,  a  positive  provision  for  the 
admission  of  slavery  south  of  that  line.  And  now, 
sir,  coming  from  a  slave  State  as  I  do,  I  owe  it  to 
myself,  I  owe  it  to  truth,  I  owe  it  to  the  subject,  to 
say  that  no  earthly  power  could  induce  me  to  vote 
for  a  specific  measure  for  the  introduction  of  slavery 
where  it  had  not  before  existed,  either  south  or  north 
of  that  line.  Coming  as  I  do  from  a  slave  State,  it 
is  my  solemn,  deliberate,  and  well-matured  determina- 
tion that  no  power,  no  earthly  power,  shall  compel 
me  to  vote  for  the  positive  introduction  of  slavery 
oither  south  or  north  of  that  line.  Sir,  while  you 


186  GENERAL     APPENDIX. 

reproach,  and  justly,  too,  our  British  ancestors  for 
the  introduction  of  this  institution  upon  the  con- 
tinent of  America,  I  am,  for  one,  unwilling  that  the 
posterity  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  California  and 
of  New  Mexico  shall  reproach  us  for  doing  just  what 
we  reproach  Great  Britain  for  doing  to  us.  If  the 
citizens  of  those  territories  choose  to  establish  sla- 
very, and  if  they  come  here  with  Constitutions  es- 
tablishing slavery,  I  am  for  admitting  them  with 
such  provisions  in  their  Constitutions;  but  then  it 
will  be  their  own  work,  and  not  ours,  and  their  pos- 
terity will  have  to  reproach  them,  and  not  us,  for 
forming  Constitutions  allowing  the  institution  of  sla- 
very to  exist  among  them.  These  are  my  views,  sir, 
and  I  choose  to  express  them ;  and  I  care  not  how 
extensively  or  universally  they  are  known." 

Hear  him  further :  he  says, — 

"  So  long  as  God  allows  the  vital  ^current  to  flow 
through  my  veins,  I  will  never,  never,  never,  by 
word  or  thought,  by  mind  or  will,  aid  in  admitting 
one  rood  of  free  territory  to  the  everlasting  curse  of 
human  bondage." 

TANEY— 1319. 

In  the  year  1819,  the  Rev.  Jacob  Gruber,  a 
minister  of  the  Baltimore  Conference  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church,  was  tried  in  the  Frederick 
County  Court,  Maryland,  for  "attempting  to  excite 
insubordination  and  insurrection  among  slaves"  by 
preaching  a  sermon  in  which  he  set  forth  the  evils 


GENERAL     APPENDIX.  137 

of  slavery  and  the  duties  of  masters.  Mr.  Roger  B. 
Taney  was  one  of  the  counsel  for  the  defence ;  and 
in  a  pamphlet  account  of  the  trial,  published  in  1819, 
at  Fredericktown,  Md.,  by  David  Martin,  and  now 
lying  before  us,  we  find  Mr.  Taney's  views  of  slavery, 
of  the  rights  of  man,  and  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  at  that  time.  For  the  benefit  of  Mr. 
Taney's  good  name,  and  for  the  purpose  of  letting 
every  one  compare  his  former  opinions  with  his 
recent  decision,  we  offer  an  extract  from  his  opening 
speech  for  the  defence  : — 

"  Mr.  Gruber  did  quote  the  language  of  our  great 
act  of  National  Independence,  and  insisted  on  the 
principles  contained  in  that  venerated  instrument. 
He  did  rebuke  those  masters  who,  in  the  exercise 
of  power,  are  deaf  to  the  calls  of  humanity;  and  he 
warned  them  of  the  evils  they  might  bring  upon 
themselves.  He  did  speak  with  abhorrence  of  those 
reptiles  who  live  by  trading  in  human  flesh,  and 
enrich  themselves  by  tearing  the  husband  from  the 
wife,  the  infant  from  the  bosom  of  the  mother;  and 
this  I  am  instructed  was  the  head  and  front  of  his 
offending.  Shall  I  content  myself,"  continued  Mr. 
Taney,  "with  saying  he  had  a  right  to  say  this? 
that  there  is  no  law  to  punish  him  ?  So  far  is  he 
from  being  the  object  of  punishment  in  any  form  of 
proceedings,  that  we  are  prepared  to  maintain  the 
same  principles,  and  to  use,  if  necessary,  the  same 
language  here  in  the  temple  of  justice,  and  in  the 
presence  of  those  who  are  the  ministers  of  the  law. 
12* 


138  GENERAL     .APPENDIX. 

A  hard  necessity,  indeed,  compels  us  to  endure  the 
evil  of  slavery  for  a  time.  It  was  imposed  upon  us 
by  another  nation,  while  we  were  yet  in  a  state  of 
colonial  vassalage.  It  cannot  be  easily  or  suddenly 
removed.  Yet  while  it  continues,  it  is  a  blot  on  our 
national  character,  and  every  real  lover  of  freedom 
confidently  hopes  that  it  will  be  effectually,  though  it 
must  be  gradually,  wiped  away ;  and  earnestly  looks 
for  the  means  by  which  this  necessary  object  may  be 
best  attained.  And  until  it  shall  be  accomplished, 
until  the  time  shall  come  when  we  can  point,  without 
a  blush,  to  the  language  held  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  every  friend  of  humanity  will  seek  to 
lighten  the  galling  chain  of  slavery,  and  better,  to 
the  utmost  of  his  power,  the  wretched  condition  of 
the  slave.  Such  was  Mr.  Gruber's  object  in  that 
part  of  his  sermon  of  which  I  am  now  speaking. 
Those  who  have  complained  of  himr  and  reproached 
him,  "will  not  find  it  easy  to  answer  him ;  unless 
complaints,  reproaches,  and  persecution  shall  be  con- 
sidered an  answer." 


THE   END. 


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